(1922) Is Christianity A Failure? What Is Christianity?

GIFT OF ~

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Is Christianity

A

Failure?

WHAT IS CHRISTIANITY?

Is fruits

if

fair to

it

judge Christianity by

its

?

What are the fruits of Christianity not the deplorable conditions of Chris-

tendom today?

Does

Christianity encourage and apIf not, why do Christian

prove of wars ? nations

war between themselves?

Copyrighted June 1922

EPITOME Refined stealing and graft are legalized and taught in all Christian countries, while crude stealing and robbery are penalized. What we call "crime waves," is simply a slopping over of the refined crime ever present in our dishonest business system.

A

certain class of people

do their stealing according

law and custom, and live "respectably," in fine homes without doing any useful work with hands or brain, for the society off of which they live, while another class envy them, and in trying to pattern after them, do their stealing illegally and spend most of their time in jail. Legally speaking, the first-named class is honorable and the other class is criminal. Morally speaking both classes are criminal. Few of us are held up or injured by the "crime wave" crowd, while everybody is robbed by the legalized to

Both classes have the get-something- forIn fact, we all have this demoralizing idea more or less, and we need a religion that will educate us away from it. Most everyone desires and hopes for an inheritance; a stealing people.

nothing idea strong.

lucky number in a raffle or lottery; the finding of a well purse a "commission" or rake-off on a deal of some kind regardless of whether we intend to render an equivalent or whether we are worthy of it. And our present refilled

;

ligion (Christianity) cannot consistently protest, because it teaches the something-for-nothing idea which rests on

dishonesty.

When we get something for nothing, usually gets nothing for something, which the same reason that stealing is not fair.

some one is

not

fair,

else

for

Humanity needs a reformed church advocating a

scienpractical and universal religion that will teach the individual not to covet something for nothing in this life or the life to com'e a church and religion that will broad-

tific,

;

moral intelligence so that we of both mind and body. cast

all

can have real liberty

FOREWORD In order to write intelligently on the subject of this book, it seems to me necessary to do that which I would greatly prefer not to do. But, as is often the case in clearing land, we must first burn up a lot of rubbish and plow under much decayed matter as well as destroy an occasional hornet's nest, it will be necessary, if we are to improve our earthly conditions, to clear our mental land of much rubbish by passing the fire of reason over it and burn error to a crisp, leaving a clear seed bed for a crop of new ideas to take root among the

good ancient ideas that survive the cleaning process, where all may grow and blossom into a higher and better civilization.

Two

must be stirred up entrenched ignorance masking as religion, and entrenched greed and selfishness masking as "the greatest hornet's nests

:

superstitions, financial

system on earth."

Those who make a good

easy living out of their religion and those who make a better, easier living out of our financial system, and think more of that living than of common humanity, will play the hornet act. This is the reason why religion is a dead thing, a hindrance to progress instead of a living help to humanity in its fight for betterment. I believe our present religion and churches stand squarely in the path of progress, hindering instead of helping us to a more refined state of society; that it is our duty to purify our religion and reform our churches and set them to work for us right here on earth, or form a new religious or church movement that will crowd the refuses to act, and do something real for For, if we ever have any better earthly social conditions, it will be the churches that bring about those better conditions. No other human agency could cement the great common people of earth old aside,

if

it

our earthly welfare.

together strong enough and long enough to accomplish

49

IS

4

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

The a victory over organized greed and selfishness. unrest is world wide and the cure must be world wide also. Nothing but a religious movement will cure our and economic

political

ills

and bring

real

and lasting

peace to earth.

My

faith in a

lieve that the

Supreme

Intelligence leads

time will come

when men

me

will be

to be-

com-

paratively free from poverty, crime and misery, and that it is the duty of us all to do whati we can to hasten that day. I do not wish to be understood as a religious busybody, caring only to carry out my own fads and impose my own imperfect ideas of religion on my neighbors. I wish to unselfishly work to increase human knowledge, virtue and happiness. I do not wish to see the mind of anyone enslaved on any subject. I would like to see earthly conditions made better for all, and for this reason alone I would join a religious or church move-

ment whose main object would be

to gather together moral people, regardless of their individual religious views, in churches to work for a better civilization a civilization with an economic system in which every person will get justice or a near approach to it; will get all he or she earns or produces or its equivalent, and in which each able bodied normal adult will be compelled to produce or earn all he or she gets, other than that which is a willing gift from others a civilizaton in which poverty will come to no one who does not court intelligent,

;

;

or desire

it;

a civilization that would care for the helpand aged, as tenderly and willingly care for its helpless infants.

less sick, crippled

as

it

would

do not care to be the cause of any one changing his religion or other mental garments any more than I would care to be the cause of him changing his coat I

or shoes. I would like to see every person keep the religion that suits his mental development best. The more ignorant and unthinking a person is the more dogmatism and superstition will enter into that person's religion,

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

5

and I think it is best that it should be so. On the other hand the more intelligent and thoughtful a person is, the more scientific that person's religion will be, and ordinarily, it does no good and often much harm, to argue on purely religious matters. Each person is bound to have a religious view suitable to his or her stage of intellectual development and should be allowed to enjoy it in peace as long the welfare of others is not jeoparI believe that it is not wrong to think and use dized. my reason on religious matters. I cannot accept a religion from ancients of whose truth and veracity I know absolutely nothing, any more readily than I would accept a deed to the Niagara Falls from a modern, without question. But I do not care to argue with a person who would do so, and will not bother such persons' pet theories as long he dosen't clutter the path of progress with them. When a man believes in and preaches the "divine right of kings to rule," to the actual hindrance of democracy, or the "fall of man" to the actual hindrance of "the rise of man," or "vicarious atonement" to the actual hindrance of individual and collective progress and evolution, I will do what I, can to disturb his right to believe and teach such things, simply because he is injuring his fellow man by such believing and teaching. I believe we must purify our religion and place it above our government. That we must even make our religion our constitution, as all governments are huge man-made gods with no heart or conscience, with only intelligence of a low selfish order, needing a religion to guide them, so they will not become monstrous devils with power to kill at will and spread disaster and mourning over an earth that should bring forth mostly happiness.

This

why

drag religion into the following discommonly be called purely political and economic affairs. Religion is the foundation of human affairs. There is something the matter with our foundation. It is self-evident to everyone that our is

I

cussion of what might

6

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

earthly affairs are in a bad shape.

they could also be better.

They could be worse,

Let us try to make them

better. I do not wish to injure any ones feelings, especially I wish the feelings of honest, well meaning people. to proceed in a constructive strain, breathing good-will and an honest intention to enlighten and consolidate humanity, instead of antogonizing and separating All I wish to do is separate people from people. religious and economic error, so the world will be better and happier. I will proceed to tell what I believe to be the truth. Judge for yourselves. In the following pages I have recorded a protest

against "something for nothing," against people trying something of value without giving its just equivalent in payment. to get

Interest on money is the greatest "something for nothing" scheme on earth. It is refined, civilized slavery so subtle that the slaves do not suspicion it. Its victims are as proud of the badge of slavery as a dog with a brass

name of his master. that I am protesting against are thousands of years old. Interest on money, and false religion, especially, were fought by Aristotle, Plato, Plutarch, Cato, Cicero, Seneca, Guatama, Confucius, Jesus and hundreds of other great men before and since their time. moderns must fight jfalse religion .because it crowds out and occupies a space in our minds that true collar bearing the

The wrongs

We

religion should occupy. We must fight heathen religions, heathen Christianity included. Heathen Christianity is the vile and senseless ideas and customs woven around and injected into the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth, by Constantine and dishonest priests of old, and kept alive by priests of our day, by hypnotising and dwarfing the minds of children who never grow up mentally. There is more heathen Christianity taught in modern times than there is Jesus of Nazareth Christianity.

IS

There

is

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

more

religious

7

error and trash on earth

today than there should be, and the only way to get rid of it is to expose it and not gloss it over as most of our writers do.

Religious error causes most of our political and eco-

We

must have a religious house cleaning. error. times, strikes, poverty and wars can be abolished by a new religious movement. Interest on money is condemned by Leviticus chap. 25, par. 36 Deuteronomy chap. 23, par. 19 Psalms chap. Luke also 15, par. 5; Ezekiel chap. 18, par. 8 and 17; preaches against interest on money. Jesus drove the "money changers" out of the temple, but money chan-1 gers flourish today more than ever. The word "usury' in the Bible means "interest" and "profit." This word means, today, an entirely different thing; it means "too much" interest now. In reading the Bible remember that "usury" means "interest." nomic

Hard

;

Now

;

reading what I have to say, do not get the laying all the blame on priests and money changers. They are not individually and entirely to blame. They are simply making the best of circumstances over which they have but little control. It is the system that breeds them and the great common idea that

in I

am

people of earth are responsible for the system. I am trying to show what is wrong and how to correct it. I realize that my writings are crude; that I repeat very often that I quote the words of others often that there is not an idea or thought in the whole book that is new or original with me; that most, if not all, that I write about, was written thousands of years ago. Many times I have flattered myself that I had a new thought and then accidentally discovered the same idea in nearly the same language, written by some Greek, Chinese or Hindoo, three thousand years before my time. ;

;

So please consider that all I write, is what men said before I was born. I am simply helping to pass some of the truth these men taught, on to you. If it aids you,

IS

8

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE f

teachers, Plato, Confucius, Jesus and If it injures you, blame me for keeping alive others. the error of those men.

give credit to

my

have no personal grievance, it is for others I write. above want and the fear of it. I can battle with present unjust economic conditions and succeed. I understand the system. So do not get the idea in your head that you would be doing me a favor by "believing" the truth I am trying to tell you for your own benefit. I

I

am

It is really against my personal, selfish interest to abolish interest on money, as my main income is derived

through interest on money. Why do I take interest if I know it to be morally wrong? For the same reason that I pay interest every time I purchase the necessities of life. Read what 1 have to say in the following pages, "not to contradict or believe, but to weigh and consider." The world unrest is caused by wrong thought everybody trying to get something for nothing, and only a few succeeding. The result is wars, crime waves, strikes, hard times, unmerited poverty and unemployment. The proposed remedy is a new world-wide church movement, teaching economic as well as religious truth, crystalizing, educating and enforcing public opinion. An intelligent church influence is the hope of civilization. F. J.

EDDY,

Van Nuys,

Cal.

Jan. 1922

SOMETHING FOR NOTHING The something or most

all,

of our

for nothing idea troubles.

is

what causes

all,

main

The something tianity,

by!

the

that we can sin for us, and that

for nothing idea is started by Chris"vicarious atonement" idea, the idea

and some one

else can and will suffer gain the great prize of heaven while are getting something Jesus pays the great price. for nothing, something that we did not work for and honestly earn. It causes Christian thought to get lazy, indolent and stagnant and sentimentally criminal; for If you it is criminal to expect something for nothing. expect love give love, if you expect money give money or its equivalent, if you expect heaven for yourself from Jesus or through Jesus or anyone else above you, then give heaven to those below you. Give as much heaven as you expect and suffer as much for those below you as

we

We

Jesus suffered for you.

If you expect Jesus to *be to cross with real iron nailed a real wooden actually nails, with real hot, red blood running down his body, or, if you expect to take a benefit from such an actuality, I say if you expect this of Jesus and are willing to accept it as your ticket to heaven, then you are dishonest and selfish if you are not willing to suffer the same actual torture for those below you. If you are not willing to have actual iron nails driven into your quivering flesh and actual hot blood dripping from your body for "the least of these your brethren," then you are a fraud; you are trying to get and are willing to accept, something for nothing, which is dishonest.

The something for nothing worm has eaten holes through our business philosophy it has fairly honeycombed our business methods and practices. The banker tries to get and control all the money he can and then lend it and collect all the interest he can, regardless of the welfare of the borrower. The merchant buys as all

;

10

_JS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

cheap as he can and sells for all he can get out of the consumer, taking advantage of the consumer's necessity. If the buyer can purchase for one cent a peck and sell for one dollar a peck, when one cent a peck will pay him for his services and expenses, clearing 98 cents per peck as "profit," he is considered a fine business man, and a good Christian, and what is worse, no one can see any wrong in the transaction. Everybody admires the merchant's foresight in buying, his buisness ability in general, and considers him a "smart" man, envying him and wishing they had opportunity to do the same thing., Here is the deplorable part about it. Religion and business have dulled their moral perception to such an extent that they not only see no wrong in it, but approve of it, and are dreaming and hoping that some day they will be able to do the same. Now if we were all able to do this, where would we land? Why, we would land in the middle of a perfect economic system, as things would be evened up. I would steal 98 cents a peck of you and then you could steal 98 cents a peck from me and we would be even. But the trouble is, that The great majority it is only a few that get away with it. never get the chance to do any stealing in business and be honored for it; and be looked up to as being "smart." But the great majority are just as unconsciously dishonest as the few, they are patiently waiting for a chance to do it.

One person is

says

:

your remedy? The

Admitting is:

this to

be true, what

Correct, honest, "do-

reply as-you-wish-to-be-done-by," thought. I am working on the remedy right now. I am trying to get people to see that there is something wrong, and what that something is. This is the first step. The second step is to correct the wrong and there is only one way to do a thing and that is, to get in and do it. Like Roosevelt built the Panama Canal, which could not be built because the country through which it was to be built would not allow Roosevelt went to work and made a country it, etc., etc.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

11

would allow it. The right and proper thing can always be done if men will to do it. But they must first see the necessity of it. My business is mainly to help show that

the necessity of building a

new economic system. hold up man has the some-

Now the gambler and the thing-for-nothing idea to some extent, only not so bad as the Christian and the business man, because the gambler risks his money and the hold-up-man risks his life trying to get something for nothing while the Christian risks nothing to get into heaven, all he has to do is lay his load of sins on another's back and just drift into heaven on the stream of love and blood pouring from the heart of the murdere4 Jesus. While the -successful business man does not risk much either, when he is "smart" and lucky enough to buy for one cent and sell for one dollar. The cautious intelligent business man understands our economic system to perfection and rarely takes any risk worth speaking of as compared to the gambler and the hold-up-man. Of course the smarter the business man and the more money he already has, the less risk he takes. The really big business men have a "cinch" a "graft." They nearly always make it pay, while the gambler and hold-up-man never makes it pay. They just live in hopes that it will pay some time. But, alas, that time never comes, never will come, because they, as well as the Christian and the business man, are selling their souls for a mess of pottage. They are all trying to get something for nothing. The Christian wants salvation for nothing but his "belief." He refuses to have nails driven in his body and real thorns jammed into his brow so that he may thereby purchase an eternal home of happiness in heaven. "Belief" is an easy very easy thing to give, while being nailed to a cross is a very hard thing to give. He is trying to get something of more value to him than a universe of worlds, and for what? Just "belief" in an ancient fairy The Christian starts this dishonest tale, dream at best. idea of greed and graft. He is trying to get something

12

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

And the reason why I dwell so much on the Christian is because he sets a bad example to the gambler and the hold-up gun-man as well as the business for nothing.

man. Purified Christianity will teach salvation by no other means than hard work, study, thought, and purified, desires. This, and this only, is what Jesus of Nazareth taught.

Another class of people who make a pretty good living out of the something for nothing idea is the real estate men. While they give value received occasionally, they should not be blamed too much for breaking the long established and universally accepted rule of "do your best to get something for nothing." They will often introduce you to some one and then send you a bill for two or three thousand dollars "commission," and if you know what is good for you, you will pay the commission bill the "minit" you receive it. Some think the real estate men are as greedy and grasping as bankers, but I am certain they are not, because if they were they would be bankers themselves. They make a pretense of giving you something for your money. You can't deny that you received the "introduction."

But the biggest get somthing for nothing scheme that mortal man has ever invented, the emperor of all It is a sponge that grafts, is "interest on money." subtly absorbs the great common people's surplus above a very common living, and gives it to the "money changers" of earth as their legal own, without the "money changers" rendering a just equivalent for said surplus. It works so mysteriously and so presistently that its victims never suspicion but what it is morally honorable. Interest on money is the crime of the ages. No interest on money should ever be expected or taken by any one other then the government, as compensation to cover the actual cost of printing or coining and circulating money. Unless our government should it wise and best to use interest on money, as the

deem main

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

13

source of raising revenue with which to maintain government as it would be a simple and effective way of collecting taxes without employing a horde of tax gatherers. The burden of taxation through this method would fall, ultimately, on the consumer, as it should. The consumer should pay according as he enjoys. If he uses a penny pencil to write an article showing the dishonesty of our present system, he should not pay as much tax as the man who uses a fountain pen to apologize for and uphold the "money changers" that succeeded the ones Jesus drove from the temple. To illustrate the power of interest on money to rob the people we will take one dollar and let it out at com pound interest for eight years at ten per cent, or fifteen ;

years at five per cent, and it will double itself. Now you may let the one dollar represent all the money in the

world and what do you have? A pretty bad state of affairs for any one but a "frenzied financier" to comtem-

plate.

All the money in the world, let out at compound interest at five per cent., would double itself in about fifteen years, and in practice there is no other kind of interest but compound interest or worse yet, as it is the practice of money lenders to draw their interest every three or six months and immediately let the interest out ;

on interest with the exception of what they might choose to reserve for current expenses. And all the money in the world at ten per cent, compound interest will double itself inside of eight years.

Now

suppose the money changers loaned all the the world to the common people just eight years at ten per cent, compound interest. At the end of eight years it will take all the money in the world to pay the interest on all the money in the world, so where are the people going to get the money to pay the principal which also amounts to all the money in the world? Take eight years Just take your time to answer. if you like and in the mean time the original unpaid

money

in

IS

14

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

principal will be doubling itself by means of interest on money, while the mone'jy) changers must necessarily loan back to the people the "all the money in the world" just paid to the money changers as interest on the original "all the money in the world" which now, at the beginning of the second eight years becomes a new or second principal loaned back to the people, because the people must have money to do business on.

Now

end of the second eight years what do The people owe the money simply this. changers twice all the money in the world as principal and twice all the money in the world as interest after having paid at end of the first eight years, all the money in the world to the money changers as interest. In other words, at the end of sixteen years the people owe the money changers four times "all the money in the world" with only once "all the money in the world" with which to pay the debt after having paid the money changers once "all the money in the world," eight years before. In sixteen years the people must pay the money changers five times all the money in the world. How can they do it? It just cannot be done, and in actuality it never is

we

done. is

at the

find?

The

principal

paid in products.

is

paid in

money and

the interest

How money does increase! In sixteen years it has increased from once "all money in the world" to five or six times all the money in the world, without really increasing one dollar. The theory that money increases, that money "works," is a false theory and must be discarded. Some may say that I am unreasonable in placing interest rate so high, and, just to be accomodating, I will reduce the interest rate one half, although many, many people pay ten per cent, and even more. Now at five per cent compound interest, "all the money in the world" will be paid to the money changers of the world, five times possibly six times, inside of

IS

thirty years.

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

One

of

the

times a payment

15

is

made,

discharging a just debt, the first of four or five payments The other principal. "all the money in the world," are payments of interest on money by the common people of earth to the "money changers," which is mostly dishonest graft on the part of the money changers and tribute paid by the the

payment

is

people.

as

These four payments are not actually made in money, It would be a I have shown, they could not be.

physical impossibility. The only payment that in money is return of the principal.

is

made

The money changers of earth use "interest on money" as a civilized means of getting "something for nothing." Just divide thirty years by four and you have seven and half. Theoretically every seven and one half to years the common people of the earth pay the "money changers" of earth all the money of earth as returned borrowed principal together with products equal in value to all the money of earth as 'interest"

one ten

on

all

the

My

I am just jumbling facts. am just juggling with a fool theory. I admit am just working on a "fool theory," but it is the

That that

money

critics

of earth.

will say that

I I

"money changers" own theory. It is their theory that money increases of itself. That money "works." That money "grows" and will double itself in a certain number of years. It is their theory that "interest on money" is

proper,

is

I have taken the honorable and right. "fool theory" and used reason to show

money changers

up as a "fool theory." No one can deny that if all the money in the world is placed on interest for a term of years, that the interest will equal the principal in time and that when that time arrived either the interest or principal would necessarily have to remain unpaid if payment had to be made in cash. This proves that money does not increase, grow or work. it

IS

16

Do you

see

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE? what helps

to

make hard times every

seven to ten years?

Every seven to ten years the "money changers" of earth gather in all the money of earth as well as all the surplus products of earth. The men and women who did all the producing have neither money or products. freeze, starve, wear rags and exist somewhile those who produced nothing, fairly wallow in plenty and luxury.

They must

how

The "money changers" and

their servile apologists "over-production," "lack of- foreign trade," and blame the tariff, the Democrats, or just anything, to fool the people while we are going through these periodical "hard times." The "money changers" used to take our hide off by jerks and when we cried out and danced around in pain they called it a "panic." The Federal Banking Act has help to civilize the skinning process somewhat, but does not lessen the amount of hide we give up to the "money changers" every so often. call

it

Now when and

all

money

the "money changers" get all tne money the surplus products, they do not care to lend

to producers to start production again until they that interest on money has

are rid of their surplus

accumulated for them. They have more of everything than they can consume and naturally wish to sell the surplus before allowing more to be produced and held

by themselves.

And

in the

mean time

the

men who

did

producing must merely exist, because they have but little money with which to buy back from the the

"money changers" the products they themselves produced but which "money changers" unjustly acquired through "interest on money." This is the main reason why

we have hard

times

regularly. There are other causes, but I will not menIf a person knows the general average tion them here. rate of interest, the date of the ending of the last "hard

times," he can figure out just about

when

the next hard

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

17

times will strike the producers, by making due allowance few other things. The time in question will be when interest on money gathers up all the money again; or in other words, when money through interest theoretically doubles itself again, and the interest or principal must be paid in Interest is a great sponge that soaks up all products. the money in the country every seven to ten years. The money changers own the sponge and wring it out by means of "loans" and then let it soak the money back for a

again in due time. When the money changers begin to wring the sponge, times begin to get "good," and when the sponge is drawing up the last money, times are the hardest for the common people, producer and consumer alike neither has money with which to transact business. But the "money changer" never has "hard times" unless it is when everybody else has the best of "times" and ;

prices are high, and the "money changers" dollar will buy only one half what it will when times are hard for "Hard times" for producers are "good the producer. times for "money changers." Their dollars are worth twice as much then.

Some may say: "You are wrong; when times are hard the farmers have to hoard their grain, and the graineries filled to capacity during hard times belong to the producers, the farmers." This is a fact in theory It is a technical fact, not a real one because only. every sack of grain owned by the average farmer is mortgaged to the "money changers" for all it will sell The "money changers" for, after expenses are paid. not only own the grain through mortgage but have mortgages on the farmers' ranches also, for all they are worth in hard times, as well as at other times. I wish to emphasize and make plain that interest on money is a million-headed man-made monster that covers the earth with its slimy carcass and thrusts its book of every widow, every orphan, every cripple, every invalid as well as

snake-like tentacles into the pocket

18

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

into all the pocket books of all the common people of earth jsilently and subtly stealing from one twentieth to If I do one half of the contents of all such pocket books. not succeed in doing this, it will be because I lack the ability, and it will still be a fact just the same.

How many homes in the United States are not mortHow many business firms do not pay heavy How many newspapers in this "land of the interest?

gaged?

and home of the brave" dare publish what I write? are heavy money borrowers and should they print something reflecting on their masters, the money lenders, they would be put out of business rather unceremoniously. This is why you will see nothing"in the papers" about interest on money being dishonest. World unrest and crime waves are blind, unintellifree

Most publishers

gent, desperate protests against previous, as well as present injustice. These protests are effects. You will never learn the causes by listening to the average preacher, banker, politician or editor. They do not know and would not tell if they did know. They'd lose their jobs if they told. You must quit thinking other peoples thoughts if you really wish to know what causes wars, crime waves, hard times etc., and how to stop them. If Christianity is a failure you should know it. If it is not a failure you should find out what it is and follow it.

GOVERNMENT OWNERSHIP OF MONEY Money

has been rightfully

named

the "life blood of

cannot exist; and specialized labor cannot be carried on. Does any one deny this?

a nation." diversified

Without money,

civilization

Now if money is the life blood of a nation the general welfare of any nation will depend a great deal upon There must be some the condition of its life blood. certain amount or volume of money necessary to produce a healthy business state of affairs in a nation. There must be some best system of keeping the nation's life blood circulating properly, so as to avoid business stagnation. The more and faster money circulates the livelier business is. Now if money is the life blood of a nation who should own and control it? Should private citizens own and control the nation's life blood, or should the nation itself own and control its own life blood? The "frenzied financiers" of this country will no doubt disagree with me, but I am one who believes that our nation should own and control its own life blood. I believe it dangerous and harmful to allow private citizens who are responsible to no one for their financial acts, to own most of, and control all of our nation's life blood, our medium of exchange the thing that our business life and death depends on and the condition of which, can make business good or bad good for the few and bad for the many. It seems certain to me that this power over the nation's life blood should be vested in government, entirely exempt from any control whatever of a less number of private citizens than ;

;

a majority.

There must be some approximately correct rules and methods that should be strictly followed in order to bring about the

best general favorable greatest good to the greatest number.

results;

the

IS

20

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE r

Now

would it not be better for the general welfare of our people to take the ownership and control of our nation's life blood out of the hands of private citizens the entirely and place said ownership and control in hands of a special non-political, but financially scientific, department of our general government, where finances can be studied, and methods conservatively improved from time to time as experience and progress shows the necessity and advisability? Run like our postal system is; for the good of all our people, keeping in close touch with the business world and aiding in all ways possible, issuing instructions that will lessen the frequency and period of "hard times," if not do away with them altogether. I am certain that hard times are unneccessary and can be abolished by our government owning and controlling our nation's life blood. This taking over and controlling our medium of exchange need not be any sudden or rash act. [It can all be accomplished in a gradual manner so as not to disturb or harmfully affect current business at all, when I do it is once decided to be the proper thing to do. not believe in confiscating or condemning anything. should buy and pay for whatever is necessary to make

We

the change from private citizens control to government control of our nation's life blood.

The question of whether it is desirable to make the change should be decided before going into details of how to make it It is a very easy matter to do, if a majority of our people think it best. It is purely a question of whether the tremendously important control of our nation's life blood should remain in the hands of selfish, grasping, irresponsible private citizens who are continually scheming against the public good and for their own private good, or should be placed in the hands of a government department whose sole object is to serve the public, and to that end study and systematize and scientifically superintend and watch .

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

21

over our finances so as to keep our business in the best of health at all times.

Of course some bankers will oppose this. They will not be able to dig up of invent language strong enough to condemn the suggestion. Their contention will be that our government is not honest enough and does not know enough to run banking business. But I will meet that argument by suggesting that our government just hire these same bankers who are so honest and smart, to work for the government at a good salary and run the government banks for us. This would be much better than for our government to have a big banking business on its hands and no honest or competent men to run it.

The question to be decided is this: the government to own and control its or a few bankers own and control it?

Now

there

is

bound

The bankers will say own and control the with them.

That

is,

Which is best, own life blood

to be two answers to this question that it is best for the bankers to nations life blood. And I agree I believe that it is best for the

bankers.

On the other hand I also believe that it would be best for the business men and farmers of the nation to have our government take over and run its own life blood. Line up people. Take sides with the bankers, or take sides with yourselves. Of course a lot of you will side with the bankers because you are hoping to be bankers some day.

HARD TIMES Why America?

do

we have "hard

times" every few years in

Hard times means unemployment,

business, a lot of suffering,

inharmony and

lack of disorder.

The only inharmony in the universe that I know of, outside of a little made by vicious lower animals, is the foolish, greedy men and women. This is a beautiful world, lovely place to live, and the only reason we are not always prosperous and happy is because we are continually trying to go contrary to the laws of nature; getting out of harmony with truth and justice. Hard times come and go every few years like clock work. Many people know the causes and profit by them, while millions of our hard working citizens do not suspicion the causes and lose heavily of their hard earned products, by these unnecessary, periodical "hard times." These seasons of depression are always preceded by seasons of activity and speculation the depressions being looked upon as the reaction from the speculation. The abstract cause of hard times is an unjust economic system. A system that is absolutely and positively contrary to the teaching of Jesus of Nazareth, and should be studied, understood and denounced by every true follower of Jesus. The time is ripe for the churches of our land to compel the politicians to incorporate into our economic system the teachings of Jesus.

inharmony made by

;

Now

coming down to the concrete, the main cause of hard times is the lack of ready money to transact business, to plant and cultivate, to harvest, move and sell crops and other labor products, yes and to buy lack of money felt crops and other labor products. is this? by the producer and consumer alike. There are a hundred surface-reasoning answers to this and every one of them wrong, yea, worse than wrong it is a crime for sleek well-fed men to sit back in their

A

Why

;

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

23

easy chairs in finely furnished offices and utter them, through ignorance or cupidity, while thousands of industrious men and women with their little ragged families try to make a decent living and merely exist during "hard 'times." The cause of hard times and panics is the misuse of money. Using it to speculate on,using it to get something for nothing. Using it to gamble on and to graft with. in manner and for purposes for which it a it Using should not be used. Using it as a legal jimmy to pry unearned supplies out of other peoples' storehouses. Using it for other purposes than a medium of exchange of products, a separate book-keeping account between the individual and society in general. Money should be ow ned by the government and use by its citizens only to exchange products, brain labor, manual labor and that which is produced by either or both. The citizens should pay the government the actual cost of the service, which would be small. The widow taking in washing to feed and cloth her children must pay a tribute of one tenth, often more, of her hard earned money to well dressed idlers lounging in luxury who have a legal, subtle means of compelling her to do so; compelling her to give to them a good portion of what she produces, for which she gets no equivalent in exchange. How do they do it? A greater part of our business is run principally on borrowed money on which interest is paid ultimately by the consumer. The widow being a consumer pays interest when she buys from the grocer. The grocer r

acts as tax collector for the well dressed modern "money changers," followers of Jesus the red blooded man who drove the "money changers" out of the temple men who live off of interest on money. They are supported by all ;

who work and

produce, without working or producing anything themselves. Under our present economic system this is legal and highly honorable. Under a correct system this would be robbery. Don't blame the indivi-

24

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

duals. It is the system that is at fault and not one person in a dozen knows it, or seems to care. This question of interest on money is one of the great economic evils to be corrected, and one of the hardest to correct on account of the false idea having gained such a hold on the minds of men for the last two or three thousand years one that causes the people who produce, to lose billions of dollars annually to the people who do not produce one of the hardest to correct because of the fact that we must fight the arrogance of false learning, must come out in the open while glutted greed and graft skulking behind the forest of age old customs, hurling bombs of sarcasm, ridicule and cunning sophistry at common people, with the constant sneer that they are not brainy enough to grasp financial questions and that they seek to destroy civilization. The champions of our present "frenzied finance" dare not come out in the open and talk plain reason, justice and the rights of men. Their battle cry will be the rights ;

;

the rights of property. They forget that that dollars were made by men, to be their servants, not their masters. They ignore the fact that dollars are lifeless inert matter. That men, not dollars, sweat, till the soil and produce; that men should use dollars as tools, as they use the plow, the freight car, the auto, as tools only. They will repeat catchy phrases such as "let your dollars work for you while you sleep," which will command the attention of the ears of the ignorant and lull them into beautiful of dollars,

man was made by God and

dreams, while our present vampire financial system sucks Remember, morally speaking, if your you while you are asleep, your dollars are burglars, snooping around your neighbors hen roost, stealing from your neighbor while you are asleep so that you may enjoy when awake. Dollars are like fire, a fine servant of man properly handled, but a very demon when beyond his control. Dollars at present are beyond the control of the great their lifeblood. dollars work for

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

25

common

They are under the control of irrepeople. individuals that is, individuals who do not sponsible have to report to the people regarding their conduct. To explain meaning somewhat clearer I will draw your attention to a litttle of our most recent financial history here in the greatest country on earth, where every voter is a sovereign! Where the people rule!

my

You all, no doubt, remember during the last days of the reign of Woodrow Wilson, he had much to say about the high cost of living and seemed to have done power to try and bring it down. Congress hand in the talk game but backed off whipped. It was plainly demonstrated that the great American Government was powerless to do anything for the great

all in his also took a

people of America, the common people that Mr. Lincoln said God must love because He made so many of them. But something was done a few months after the

common

government quit trying, and by whom was it done ? By a few men disconnected from our government; men who are not elected by the people and are not responsible to the people for their financial acts, but men who had the power to bring down prices with leaps and bounds and men who actually did do it; did something that our great government did not seem able to do. How did they do it? Well Til tell you, I must first explain a few things. I do not wish to give out the wrong impression. I do not wish any one to misconstrue my meaning. I am trying to do good and I do not wish to do more harm than good in my attempt. I am not blaming the individual; I am blaming the system under which all individuals must act and none but the majority can change.

The heads of our financial system, acting within their rights as we at present understand those rights, sent a circular broadcast to all, or at least a majority of the banks of our nation to "call in loans." They knew why and that is quite sufficient. I, also, know, but that doesn't matter or in fact is another story. The

Why?

26

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

point I am trying to make plain is that a few private individuals have powers that should remain in the hands of majorities only; in governments representing maWhen the various banks throughout our counjorities. this notice they followed its command or received try advice and began to "call in loans." This meant that merchants must get money from some other source than banks, as all banks were in the "calling" instead of "loaning" business. The only way they could do it was

goods quick, at reduced prices of course. Easy it, when the right men got on the job? Impossible for Congress representing the -people but easy for a few bankers representing themselves. Financial and economic affairs are not too intricate for the average mind and until the average mind studies such questions we will have the same discord and unhappy conditions. The same short "good times" and the same long "hard times" with strikes, lockouts, unemployment, misery, soup kitchens and bread lines we have had in the past, with all kinds of charity and paliative measures to relieve the situation every so often. This is week-day Christianity. What we need is a nearer approach to exact justice and there will be no more man-made hard times. All the hard times I have experienced in my life grew out of an unjust economic system and not from natural causes, such as general lack of crop. Every hard times I have gone through was caused by too much of everything, therefore the ones who produced it must starve and freeze. Seems strange, but pure logic, if our present economic system is a correct premise.

to sell

wasn't

GALLEY SLAVES Remember, in

money.

It

on money is never really paid always paid in labor, in service, in

interest is

produce, in sweat, in time, in slavery. God Almighty made time days, nights and years. ;

Men made money

;

nickles,

dimes and

dollars.

Scheming,

brutal, dishonest men trade their man-made, cheap, article for your God made, valuable article, Time, by means of interest on money. They cheat you, they

enslave you and you honor them for.it. Dollars are man made, dead, lifeless, and cannot reproduce themselves. Grains of wheat are God made and can, and do reproduce themselves. People quit trading !

your precious God made

articles for

shoddy man made

goods.

God made bright sunny days for men to enjoy all men to enjoy. He also made rainy days for their benefit, to teach them lessons, as men learn by experience. Now God evidently intended that each man, woman and child should have his or her proper allotment of sunny days as well as rainy days so as to round out and balance their characters, and make wiser, happier men and women of them. But now comes along a few hypocritical, shallow brained, lazy and dishonest men and invent "interest on money" which aids them to steal your happy sun shiny days from you and then you will have all rainy, worry-work-and-strive days while the inventers and users of interest on money have all bright sunny days throughout their lives. In olden times the people's masters chained them to oars of war boats, pleasure boats, and boats of commerce. them.

The

people's rulers

made

galley slaves out of

To-day the people's mental masters chain them to the oars of their "mortgage" boats, their "bond" boats and their "loan" boats. All working people are chained

IS

28

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

to these boats before they are born, yes, even before their parents have been born, their bodies are doomed to furnish the meat that is to be ground up to make hot dog sandwiches for the "money changers." While they

are out playing golf,

you

are hoeing potatoes so they

may eat, and all you get for your work is "credit" for so much interest paid on loan, bond or mortgage. While they are riding in their fancy autos, wearing nice warm clothes you are down in the wet, chilly, dangerous mines digging the coal and iron to make the autos, or you are herding and shearing the sheep, in order to get the wool to make the warm clothes. And what do you get for it? A miserable living and credit for so much interest paid. Where have your bright sunny days gone? Who got them? Wake up, you galley slaves! Do you want to be free? It is an easy matter: vote You are going intelligently when you get a chance. to have that chance before long. God pities you and will give you a chance to save yourselves. When a man charges you interest on money, he sells you Time. It would be just as proper to sell sunshine or

air.

A money

changer hands you one dollar; it back to him; no interest

ment you hand of course,

in is

one mocharged

why?

again: A money changer hands you one dollar; in ten years you hand it back to him with one dollar

And

interest;

why?

Simply because the money changer has sold you ten years of God's Time. You do not look at it that way? Of course you do not. You look at it the way the "money changer" and your "get something for nothing religion" has taught you to look at it, and you will die in poverty looking at it that way rather than look at it right and change the world from misery to happiness. I do not expect to change your thoughts on the subject. But that does not worry me. My business is to tell you and I am trying to do it. This will dis-

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

29

charge my obligation to you. If you ever want the system changed I will be glad to help you all I can. But before the system can be changed we must change our religion. Our present religion has generated and scattererd thought that has produced our present deplorable earth conditions. Before the world can go forward it must adopt a universal, world religion that does not deal in manmust have a world religion that tries made gods.

We

to see, study

man and

and know God by studying and knowing

We

need a broad intelligent religion nature. that will build moral character, the greatest and best thing a person can possess, which can be developed only by a true religion taught in homes, schools, libraries, theatres, churches and in every day business dealings. need a religion that teaches a broad intelligent daylight free and inspiring belief in a Creator, to take the place of a religion that teaches us a dark, superstitious "Believe or be belief in a man-made god who says: damned," "depart into everlasting punishment," "He who denies me before man, him I will deny in heaven."

We

Instead of a religion that teaches us to be selfish thinking of ourselves and our being saved, we need a religion that inspires unselfishness, idealism, while re-

cognizing a Supreme Intelligence, unknown and .unin so far as mortal man is concerned, teaching the Fatherhood, Brotherhood, a soul and future life with the Golden Rule. This is the religion that Jesus taught but his misguided followers of today add stories of ancient murder, immorality and imbecility to the greatest religion on earth until it becomes one of the very worst

knowable

on earth, worshiping a mythical man-made god, an impossible half-breed a half man, half god, weakling.

religions

;

FIAT

MONEY

Not long ago I noticed a popular writer of Chicago, takes Mr. Ford and Mr. Edison to task for advocating fiat money. It is

my

opinion that

if

this writer

knew

as

much

day as the other two gentlemen have proved to the world that they know' in a minute, this writer would not have written what he did. While I am not an advocate of fiat money under our present economic system, there is no question but what fiat money, the ideal scientific money, would be the proper thing under an ideal scientific economic system, but we should have the ideal economic system first, and there is no question in my mind but what Mr. Ford and Mr. Edison had this in mind when advocating fiat money. It would be and always has been financial suicide as in a

y

enthrone fiat money in a country run by greedy bankers and hungry politicians, and what country is not run by such a gang? You could not come any nearer making fiat money a success in any government of today than you could in making a success of the chicken business by getting a lot this

writer points out,

to

of cayotes to guard your chickens. The cayotes would find a way to make the chicken business unprofitable for you. Under our present economic system the heartless greedy "money changers" would find a way to make fiat money a failure as they always have in the past, with the help of dishonest politicians, as this writer so plainly points out. The difference between this writer and the other two gentleman is this: he either does not see the injustice and dishonesty of our present economic system, or he is not brave enough to take a stand for the people against their despoilers, but prefers to act as an apologist for the "money changers;" while the other two gentlemen see the wrongs the common people are suffering from and are trying to help correct them.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

31

This writer remarks: "But a silver or gold dollar do the work. A gold or silver dollar has value. A paper dollar of itself has not unless it is redeemable at a bank or mint for gold or silver." Now such hypocritical reasoning has been repeated and exposed so many times in the last forty years in this country that I should think a high school boy would know better than to try and use it as mental dust to will

throw

in the eyes of the people.

Now

this

writer should

know by

actual daily ex-

purchasing supplies to live on, that no dollar whether gold, silver or paper, is practically worth anything until it is "redeemed" by things to eat, wear and What good is your gold dollar if you cannot enjoy.

perience in

trade

it for something to eat, clothes, etc.? This writer says "One might as well try to measure calico by the peck and wheat by the yard as to measure the value and price of calico or wheat with a strip of paper that has no value of its own." It is surprising to me that a man in this day and age can get such words published and get paid for it too. It is not the "value" of the strip of paper or the metal disk that records the value of calico or wheat any more than it is the "value" of the yard rule itself that measures the amount of calico. A wooden rule will :

measure the

calico as well as a gold or silver rule.

The

dollar does not establish the value of the wheat it merely records the value and a paper dollar will do The "value" of the wheat it as well as a gold dollar. or calico is established by numerous other circumstances. You may pay a gold dollar or a paper dollar for a bushel of wheat to-day and to-morrow a profiteer may buy up all the wheat and charge you two gold dollars or two paper dollars for a bushel of wheat. What power has a gold dollar to set the price? Of course under a fiat money system where they print money like newspapers and scatter it as generally without regard to the volume of business transacted, by an irresponsible

IS

32

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

it might take ten paper dollars or even buy what one gold dollar would buy. In this case the gold dollar would not establish the value. Neither would the paper dollars establish the value.

government,

more

to

Gold is an ideal money under a barbaric, heathenish economic system and I do not know of any other kind of economic system on earth to-day, therefore I am unqualifiedly in favor of the gold standard until we change our system to a civilized, Jesus of Nazareth system, and then bring on your fiat money and I will welcome it. Mr. Ford and Mr. Edison, you are dead wrong to advocate fiat money without changing our system and Mr. critic you are correct killing interest on money. in advocating a barbaric money for a barbaric people and barbaric goverment upheld by barbaric writers.

The

dollar should not establish the price or value of it should merely compute or record the value. dollar should be, or represent, a unit of credit. A dollar should not be allowed to "measure" value, as the term is used at present. The value or price should be named or set by supply and demand, or by the labor required to produce and deliver and by various other circumstances. Money should have nothing to do with establishing value or price.

anything,

A

Under our present system the supply of money has a large effect on price which is radically wrong. As money is scarce or plentiful, prices rise or fall. Under a correct economic system money would always be plentiful, never scarce for those who had something of value to exchange and would not affect price at all. In economics the word value signifies ratio. It means the ratio in which one article exchanges for another. should keep books only. "Let us imagine a transaction in the ordinary business of comerce. Suppose a merchant has sold $10,000 worth of goods to one of his customers on the basis of The customer gives his note at thirty days credit. The merchant discounts this thirty days in payment.

Money

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

33

note at the bank in order to obtain funds for the payof ordinary current expenses in the way of wages, and so forth. He asks the bank for cash instead of In order to obtain the cash, the bank deposit credit. rediscounts the note with the Federal Reserve bank of the district and obtains Federal Reserve Notes, which are paid over to the merchant. The note, upon which the loan is based, is now in the hands of the reserve agent of the Federal Reserve bank. The Federal Reserve notes are in general circulation during the thirty the notes days, which is the length of the credit period are continually passing from hand to hand. The customer however, is gradually selling the goods, receiving in payment, we may suppose, Federal Reserve notes, which he deposits with his bank."

ment

;

"

At the end of thirty days, when the note is mature, the reserve agent calls upon the bank which indorsed the note to repay the loan. Usually, the Federal Reserve bank will send the note to the member bank for collection. The member bank, thereupon, sends the note to the man who signed it originally, that is, the customer who has been selling the goods during the preceding thirty days. He pays the amount by drawing upon the

money he has deposited in his bank. This money is represented, we may assume, by the Federal Reserve notes collected in payment for the goods. In turn these notes are handed to the bank, which turns them over to the Federal Reserve bank. The Reserve bank, therefore, has received back the notes which it issued on the security of the commercial paper, and this, being paid, is now cancelled. At the same time, the Reserve notes are also retired

To sum

from circulation."

up the whole transaction, therefore, we may

say that the sale of the $10,000 worth of goods gave rise to the provision of the amount of currency necessary to finance the operation. As soon as the sale is consumated, the goods in the hands of the ultimate consumers, and

IS

34

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

the payment received, the currency which cancelled." Graham Laing.

was issued

is

The above

illustrates scientific money very well. at present, but allow the money changers to use it so as to bleed the people. All we need to do is take the knife (interest on money) away from the money changers and the bleeding will promptly end.

We

have

it

The great majority of people take our present state of society for granted, as being necessary. They never imagine that there could be a better state of society in which greed, poverty and crime could be greatly lessened if not quite destroyed, if a majority of mankind only intelligently willed it so. Except in isolated cases, poverty as well as "hard times" are man-made and need never be, under a correct economic system. I wish to repeat that one of the greatest causes of poverty and "hard times" is the unjust practice of taking All people pay interest on money interest on money. whether they borrow money or not. Interest always adds to prices which ultimately rests upon the consumer. The manufacture or importer borrows money and will add the interest he has to pay, to his selling price to the wholesaler, who in turn adds it to his price to the retailer, the retailer adds it to his price to the consumer

and the consumer pays interest on interest, and profit on interest, which adds greatly to price to the consumer, who pays very large interest when he pays for what he buys.

The idea on which interest on money is based is the idea that causes most of our troubles. It is the idea of getting something for nothing. Getting what the other fellow works hard for without giving him an, equivalent. It is a subtle invention, to accomplish this without the other fellow realizing it. And it works. It works so well that if anyone suggests to the poor dupes who pay interest, that they should be getting the use of money from the government at cost instead of paying money lenders from six to twenty five per cent, they will im-

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

35

mediately straighten up, look wise and talk foolish about the great mistake of having a paternal government. Sometimes I think no one but a crank would ever attempt to try and better conditions when the people to be benefitted, the people who are carrying the "money changers" on their shoulders, appear to be so well satisfied with their lot. But there is a reason for this. It is because the "money changers" propaganda is conIt is the wrong sort of tinually before their eyes. education they are getting on all occasions. Their religion teaches them wrong; "slaves obey your masters." Their political teachers teach them to hurrah for their country, right or w rong, and so on down the line. They are to be pitied more than blamed but nevertheless they must be blamed, because, \vhile breaking their backs to pay interest, they are dreaming of the day when they will be on the other side of the interest question when they will be receiving interest instead of paying it w'hen they can lay back in an easy chair r

;

;

and clip coupons, smoke good cigars, tell The yarns and enjoy life at other peoples expense. average interest payer has no more use for the fellow who is trying to make life worth living for him, than the ancient brutal men had for Jesus. in fine offices

We all pay interest whether we borrow money or not. Any one who consumes, pays from one twentieth to one half more for what he consumes on account of

on money. All interest on money

in-

terest

is

morally wrong

when taken

by private individuals. The government is the only agency that could justly demand interest on money under a civilized economic system. Interest in that case being the actual cost of the service, on the same principle as civilized

carrying letters at actual cost.

A

service a

government owes it's people. What would the rate of interest be under the new system? I do not know. No one can tell exactly any nearer than any one could tell what the postage on letters would eventually

IS

36

be

when

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

or before our postal system was established. said then, that in time a letter could be

Had any one sent from

New York

to

San Francisco and back again

Howcents, he would have been laughed at. so that it rate would be low the low, very low, ever, would appear rediculously low to us of today. two

for

But what would the money lenders do ? What did the saloon keepers do when saloons went out of style? How would it do for the money lenders to live off of thejr capital, off of their dollars, instead of using their dollars to rob people with, as long as their present dollars and when they are all gone, just quietly go to hand labor and earn some more dollars to exchange for good things of life, and not use their dollars in robbing their financially weak and ignorant neighbors through interest on money. The time lasted

work

;

at brain labor or

come when it will be considered just as dishonest to cheat a person by taking interest on money from him as it would be to cheat him by means of mathematics, by false figuring. In both cases it is taking advantage of his ignorance. Under our present system it is honorable to cheat by taking interest, but dishonest to intenwill

"Oh, my," says some one, "you tionally, falsely figure. are just going to destroy all business, there will be no individual incentive left in life." That is just what the

up to the nearest not expect modern "interest" pirates to say the same thing when they feel the halter draw. pirates of old said while being strung

and

tree,

why

One man

should

we

said to me "If I earn a dollar at labor got a moral right to let that dollar along with many other dollars I have labored for, go to work for me and earn more money for me?" I answered, that for the simple reason that dollars cannot, and do not

why

havn't

:

I

It is only people and animals that work. It is that plant and harvest crops. It is men that build houses and manufacture clothing. Dollars do not do

work.

men

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

37

such things, so you must necessarily quit repeating the fiction that dollars actually work.

He answered:

"Well, you will have to admit that plant, harvest build and manufacture, necessarily must have money to buy seed, hire help and pay bills with, and if I loan such men dollars for such pur-

men who

it seems reasonable to me that I should receive a fair rental or "interest" for the loan."

poses

answered as follows: Your answer seems logical, and reasonable to a person who has never thought much on such questions and here is where the trouble comes. You have not thought deep enough, you merely I

fair

skimmed

the surface. In the first place it is necessary to decide just what is meant by the word money, just

what

it

money

is,

is

a

and what

it does. Scientifically speaking of exchange," something that aids products for instance if I grow a sack

"medium

us to exchange of potatoes and another man in another county makes a wheel barrow, I, desiring a wheel barrow and the other man wanting a sack of potatoes, money aids us to exchange products. I turn my sack of potatoes in to society or into the general stock and receive five dollars for it. The man in the next county turns his wheelbarrow into the general stock and receives five dollars for same. Now I take my five dollars and go buy the wheelbarrow and he takes his five dollars and buys the sack of potatoes. Now money, or dollars, merely aided us to exchange products, acting as a medium of exchange or in a sense a book-keeping system. When I turn my sack of potatoes into the general stock of society, I simply received five dollars which acted as a credit slip ;

:

from society showing that I had produced five dollars worth of things men need and use. This credit slip need not have had any intrinsic value. Five dollars in gold, five dollars in silver, five dollars in paper currency or a credit of five dollars entered on a little personal book like a bank book, were that the custom, would have been quite sufficient. Then when I wanted the

IS

38

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

wheelbarrow I could have drawn a check or have taken my little "bank book," credit book, to society and have had the five dollars credit received from potatoes, cancelled and could have taken home the wheelbarrow/ and so on throughout business transactions. All money ever should be used for is a pure and simple medium of exchange. A system of book-keeping, so producers can equitably exchange products and under a correct economic system our government should furnish direct to

money

it's

citizens at actual cost of service

without the intervention of private banks or private individuals. A government note printed on good paper makes ideal scientific money especially for the exchange It is based on not only all gold, of domestic products. but also on all the other wealth of the nation. friend said "Oh I see, you want the governgo into the banking business and loan money to Tom, Dick and Harry without security, why, you'd have the government busted in no time."

"My

ment

:

to

reply was that I desired nothing of the sort. believe the government should open banks and loan money only on the best of security, on the same kind of security that private banks loan money on at present and get rich doing it. great deal of the money that banks loan is the people's money, not money belonging to the banks. The banks collect the people's money together without paying much interest and then loan it back to a part of the people at as stiff a rate of interest as the traffic will bear. I would like to see the government collect the peoples' money and loan it back to the part of the people needing it, at just what it cost the government to transact the business without the big profits that bankers make.

My

That

I

A

It

is

the government's duty to supply us with an

medium

of exchange direct from our governand not through banks and money lenders who stand between us and the scource of our medium

adequate

ment

to us,

IS of

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURKr

39

exchange levying an enormous unjust tribute from

us.

My

friend said:

"You

are trying to fix

it

so

if

I

go out and work hard and earn a dollar I can't put that dollar to work and earn more dollars for me, there would be no incentive for me to earn dollars under the system you propose." My reply was: Then I understand you to say that if you cannot so manipulate your hard earned dollars, as to get something for nothing, you would not care to earn dollars? You would not care to earn dollars for what those dollars would buy you in the open market? You would not care to produce and exchange unless

you could cheat your neighbor, or in other words if you can't cheat you won't play? You would not care to grow five dollars worth, of potatoes unless you could trade it for six dollars worth of wheelbarrows, the extra dollar being the interest on your five dolars loaned to your neighbor during the time you did not need it? Under a correct economic system if your neighbor took care of your five dollars for you during the time you did not need it and returned it to you in good shape when you did need it, you would be under obligation to your neighbor for keping it safe for you instead of your neighbor owing you interest, for the reason that, if the government did its duty and furnished to its citizens direct, all the medium of exchange that they needed at actual cost, which would be very slight, your nieghbor would have no need of your money. But the reason why you can loan your money to your neighbor today at 6, 8, 10% and higher rates of interest, is because our government does not do its duty towards its producers and workers. It allows non-producers and wealthy idlers to use their financial strength to rob the workers through interest and various other legal tricks too numerous to mention here. I do not wish to be understood as criticizing the Harding Administration or complaining, in a political

40

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

I believe that we have sense, about our government. better men at the head of our government at present than we have had for a long time. What I see as necessary

an entirely reorganized economic system which will necessitate reorganizing? our government on broader lines. This must be done by a majority of the great common people themselves and it is my business to help wake them up to the necessity. is

Another person said to me: "You wouldn't try to new economic system that would take a poor widow woman's living away from her would you? Suppose a man worked hard the greater part of his life and a little past middle age was killed, leaving a wife and only ten thoasand dollars in cash. Now this widow, by working hard for others a part of the time and rest of the time for her family, and loaning the ten thousand dollars out at good interest, could just manage to supNow would you port her family and educate them. fix it so interest would be killed and cause this poor widow to lose the greater part of her income and thereby cause great suffering to herself and her babies?" The answer was: Your hypothetical case is far fetched. It is not put fairly, the main question, a moral one, has not been touched. It shows lack of thought. Before commenting on it I will answer by asking you a get us to adopt a

Let us suppose there is another man just question. across the street who has worked hard the greater part of his life having a wife and a lot of babies also, and he meets with an accident and is killed, leaving certain expensive tools, secret formulas, etc., that his wife could rent out for enough to educate and properly raise her family on. Would it be right to pass a law not only depriving her of the right to use these formulas and

and of renting them to others, but actually confiscating these tools and formulas and giving her nothing for them? His answer was: "It would be brutal and dishonest to do so. More so than to deprive the other widow of her interest because in the latter case,

tools herself,

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

41

virtually both principal and interest were a helpless woman without giving her a just equivalent as you say."

what was taken

away from

I replied You answered without knowing what kind of tools and formulas they were. This answer bares your surface, sentimental reasoning. The tools were burglars tools and the formulas were secrets in safe cracking. You never let the question of morality enter into your :

reasoning in either hypothetical case. That is the main point I am trying to make clear all the way through. The moral question. The question of right.

There is one important thing that must not be overlooked in the case of the first widow mentioned and Had the husband received all he produced while that is accumulating his ten thousand dollars had unjust interest, rent and profit not stolen about one half of what he actually produced as he went along, he would pro:

;

bably have had twenty thousand dollars to leave his family instead of ten thousand which would have been better for the widow than to allow her to use the ten thousand with which to steal from others, while others were stealing from her, whenever she bought and paid as big interest is added to the Under a correct, she of purchased. price everything for the necessities of life

;

honest economic system, she would have had twenty thousand dollars and no interest on money added to the price of what she bought to feed and clothe herself and family, which would have lowered the price of everything greatly, and her twenty thousand would go much further under an honest system than it would under our present system.

He came

me thus: "But, admitting all you honestly acquire dollars and loan them to my neighbor I take a risk and should be compensated for that risk; call it what you may, interest, insurance or by any other name. It seems logical to me that 1 have taken a risk accomodating my neighbor and it say as true,

back at

if

I

42

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

seems no more than right and just, that he should pay reasonably for that accommodation and risk." The answer was: Again you show lack of broadness

You are too selfish. You are thinkof ing only yourself and not of your neighbor; you are not taking all of humanity into consideration. You are trying to establish the justness of a genearl rule, (of taking interest on money) by citing a specific, isolated in

your reasoning.

case, ignoring the causes that brought about your neighbor's need of an accommodation from you or any other Had the government in the first private individual. all the medium of exchange done its furinshed place duty, to all its financially responsible citizens (citizens who have something to exchange) at actual cost of SQ doing, your neighbor would not have needed the "accommodation" from you. He could have gotten it from the government, had he been worthy, for one tenth part of what you could afford to let him have it for. Here is where the trouble all starts, the government failing to do its duty towards its citizens, drives its citizens into the financial slaughter pens of the "money changers," and you in a very small way become a "money changer" and are proud of it.

Our government tries to protect its citizens against physical murderers but makes no attempt to protect us against financial murderers, against the financially strong who are continually sucking the industrial life blood of the producers through "interest on money." This is the main cause of hard times every so often. They suck up through interest and other means until they have a surplus. There is too much of everything owned by the people who did not produce it. They have all the "goods," and all the money, also. The men

who produced

all this surplus have nothing but experience and that does not seem to do them much good, for, after they stagger and starve through a period of "hard times for producers" they are more than willing to go at it again, and spit in the face of the fellow who

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

IS

43

suggests that there is a better way. Remember that "Hard Times" for producers are "Good Times" for the money lenders the money lenders' dollar will buy twice as much food, clothing- and dainties in hard times as it will buy in good times, therefore it must be greatly to ;

the

money

lenders' interest to

have hard times.

Hard

times for the great common people is a lack of money among the producers or workers to exchange their products. Graineries bursting and millions of willing workers hungry, who would like to exchange their labor for some of that grain, but no money to do it with. The harder the times the higher the rate of interest. Do you get the point? Interest on money is a banker's "crop." Hard times for the producers make good "crops" for the bankers. Do you see why we have hard times?

The money much money in

lenders will tell you that there isn't the money lending game, just a decent living, that the idea of the government lending money direct to the people on the same security that the banks require, is lunacy, that in the first place the government is not honest enough and does not know enough and that no one but an anarchist or Mormon would suggest it, so there now. If you wish to get dizzy just try to contemplate what the compound interest on $100 at 10% would be for three hundred years. It is over one hundred billion dollars. Then figure how long it would take a million men working every work day without rest, at $5 per day to produce the actual wealth represented by the interest on only $100 for this length of time, (it would take over 30 years) and you may be able to get a faint idea of the power and dishonesty of interest on money. Let a paltry $100 "work" a few centuries and a million men

will be its slaves for a length of time that will stagger

the imagination.

man

Then

figure

how much one

average

could earn at going wages, five dollars per day, in three hundred years. (Less than five hundred thousand dollars. The result will help you to see the light. The

IS

44

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

contrast between the result of the actual work of a man and the theoretical work of a few "Almighty Dollars" represented by a scrap of paper or a few metal disks, will cause you to see that the real monarchy of earth is "dollars" in our country and their relatives in other countries. Dollars have been elevated above men and women, and must be dethroned. We must take up the work started by Jesus of Nazareth and drive the "money changers" from earth. Nothing but a religious, or church movement will do it. Jesus knew what he was doing, come, Christians and follow Jesus, really follow Jesus.

Remember

One hundred dollars at ten per this: compound interest will "earn" two hundred thousand times as much as one ordinary laboring man in

cent,

three hundred years, were and work that long.

it

possible for one

man

to

live

In other words, $100 will "earn," in 300 years, as as 200,000 laboring men, at $5 a day; each man working 300 days for] 300 years.

much

In tion

other words, one dollar in the above illustraequal in importance to two thousand laboring

still

is

men.

Each dollar "working" at the interest-on-money job continually for 300 years as above stated will "earn" as much as two thousand men will earn in the same length

One dollar equals two thousand men. This is the logical conclusion of our financial system carried on This shows uninterruptedly for three hundred years. the possibilities of wrong financial ideas. of time.

have not given you the exact figures, right down to If you want these, figure it yourIf you think I have placed the interest too high, self. use any; rate of interest you care to, and the result will be bad enough. I am simply trying to show you that interest on money is wrong; that our present financial system is a fraud that it enthrones dollars and degrades men; that it is possible for one dollar in money, under I

the dollar, day or man.

;

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

45

our present economic system to become of as much importance as two thousand men. You might say: "Men do not live three hundred years, therefore you are wasting time with 'ifsV While men do not live this long, dollars live this long and much longer, drawing their compound interest. Dollars live for ages to oppress common and industrious humanity while serving and elevating gamblers and Dollars should live to serve legitimate trade grafters. and business only. We can get along without gamblers and grafters as easily as we can get along without the smallpox. Go easy Do not blame the individual, either one individual or many individuals together. The fault alone is with the system and we are all upholding the system either positively or negatively. The system was willed to us by the ancients who also willed us many a thing that will stand a little improving, our religion included. Individually speaking the average banker and money lender plays the game fairly according to the rules laid down by the economic system we are all subject to. No blame is to be attached to the inidividual. must build a new system by gradually repairing the old, as a new bridge is being built into an old bridge across a stream, while using the new and old together until the new is complete, when the old can be entirely dispensed !

We

with.

The first plank in our ancient economic bridge system that we should rip up, is the "interest on money" plank. There are many, many others to be replaced, but this^is the first.

One person said to me: "Aren't we to have any banks or bankers, nothing but potatoe producers and wheelbarrow makers? It looks to me like you were trying to tear down civilization and go back to barbarism. Now just what do you propose?" The answer was: All I am trying to do, is to put the' best moral teachings of Jesus, Confucius and Guatama

IS

46

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

into practice so as to improve our present civilization and bring peace and plenty to common industrious humanity throughout the world, with no really hard times for them.

Prosperity all the time for the deserving. Money and banks, also men to run the banks are absolutely necessary and we must have such. But we must have money and bankers as servants of the people instead of masters of the people. These same bankers

and banks working under and fo!r our government, which would be under and for our people, at a fair remuneration, would be a blessing to humanity. With no interest on money, except interest taken by the government at actual cost of furnishing the money to do business on, or interest taken by our government as taxes, billions of dollars per year would be saved to the producers of earth that is now mysteriously, though legally, stolen from them by the idlers of the world every year. A banker working for the people at a fair :

as much a producer in the broader sense of the as a teacher or a farmer. Civilization must have diversified and specialized workers of all kinds, and workers should be "worthy of their hire." It is the false theory that money can and does work and produce or It is the idlers, prime of increase, that I wish to kill. age and healthy of body the idle rich and the idle poor that should be set to work either with brains or hands.

wage word

is

;

We should not object to our present wealthy class keeping and using their present hoard of dollars and spending them as they see fit for necessities or luxuries, but we should object to allowing them to use their present dollars to get more dollars through interest on money. If they want more dollars let them earn them honestly with hands and brains. After reorganizing our government and injecting a heart and conscience into it, it should take over or embark in the banking business. Our government should own and control all money, loaning it to its citizens at actual cost of doing so, taking the best of security.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURkr

47

With the government in control of the banking business, interest on money might be made a simple, effecTaxes levied this tive and equitable mode of taxation. way would be easy to collect and would be paid ultimately by the consumer as they are today, with the difference that at present we pay a big interest tax to the idle money lenders which does us no good, while on the other hand a government interest tax would go to the government and do everybody good by lessening

other taxes greatly, possibly eliminating most of them away with many other forms of taxation, thereby doing away with an army of tax gatherers.

all

completely, doing

It is an easy matter to change from private banks government banks when a majority of our people desire the change. But the chances are that the change will not come very soon. It will not come until some and it is my opinion demands it, strong organization

to

no organization

in existance at present that opposition against it will be fierce, something like a tiger fighting to retain the carcas of a lamb. And the people are slow to see and correct the injustice they suffer from. What I or any other individual can do towards correcting the economic evils we all suffer from, is only a drop in the bucket. But if there are enough drops, in time, the bucket will be overEvery individual is a drop. Line up you flowing.

that there will ever

"drops."

is

demand

it.

The

"BY THEIR FRUITS, YE SHALL By

we

their fruits

of today

KNOW THEM"

know our

religions,

our

churches, our economic systems and our governments; on them must the blame be placed for the war torn, These man-made deplorable condition of our earth. who rule over us with an iron hand, gods elevating or crushing us at will must be analyzed and reformed. take too much for granted. allow our ignorance and prejudice instead of our reason, to run our affairs. accept too many ideas that were manufactured thousands of years ago when people thought the world was flat and war was a virtue, by men claiming that God told them so ideas that would sound silly if the same men had said that any one but God had told them

We

We

We

;

so.

evidently gave us this thing we call reason and intended that we should use it, even in judging other men when they come along and tell us that they "walked and talked with God," and that God

God

He must have

them certain things simply because they were God's Chosen." The dead have given us moderns many great things but they have also hung millstones around our necks that we must get rid of. We must educate, and to educate we must organize, or re-organize our institutions. We must have less preaching in words and more practice in deeds. Churches must be turned into school houses for grown-ups.; consultation chambers to discover the causes of "hard times," poverty, crime and told

debauchery and recommend remedies.

To consider what is best to prevent poverty is better than to give to the poor. To consider what is best to prevent sickness is better than to heal. To have no unknown dead is better than to honor the unknown dead. We should not magnify the ancient days or ancient men and writings above those of today. Merit should decide, not time. If God was on earth in ancient days, He is

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

49

here today. Creation, through evolution, is going on as much at present as it was six thousand years ago. must take an inventory of our civilization and start in business anew, trying to avoid the mistakes of the past. That we will make mistakes in the future is inevitable, but we should not keep on repeating the of today are not the same old mistakes of the past. wholly responsible for the world's misery, as it has been willed to us, but we will be responsible for the future wars and human suffering if we pass these man-made gods along to our children without studying and re-

We

We

forming them.

The selfishness and arrogance of the educated and v/ealthy leaders as well as the ignorance of the great common people who blindly follow, causes poverty, hard times and unrest. The cure is proper education. should have no extremely rich or idle rich and no extremely poor or idle poor. should have no uncared-for children, feeble, crippled or sick. All should give according to their ability and all should receive according to their needs. must necessarily fight false religion because the dead thing is in our way. People full of false religion and selfish thoughts about their own particular place in heaven have but little room on their minds for human-

We

We

We

ity.

We

are all one, and the misfortune or injury of one should be the concern of all. This is the philosophy of Jesus. He never used the words: "Believe or be damned." These words, together with other slanders against Jesus should be torn from the Bible. They are words of a forked-tongued priesthood, hissed from between the covers of the "word" of a man-made god that we must forget.

THE FIRST STEP The

first step toward a higher civilization as I see to purify our religion and exalt above everything earthly, even above government; let our purified religion be the constitution of our government. And if our religion says "thou shalt not kill" or "thou shalt not it,

is

reform the government that kills or steals. I writing of all governments of all peoples of earth.

steal,"

am

Christianity, after going through the fire of intense reasonable thought, will come out pure moral gold, and all enlightened, moral people of earth will believe in and uphold it, but there must necessarily be a lot of burned and a lot of decayed religious rubbish religious

matter plowed under first. A worn out religious idea to be put out of commission, is the idea that any one of use or any number of us together are "chosen of God." Thejews worked this The Geridea overtime and are still suffering for it. mans tried it and will suffer for their foolishness. All Christians and many heathens have more or less forcibly put forth this idiotic self conceited idea. All people

must quit it. Another religious idea

>.

to discard, is that prayer and confession only, will get us anywhere, either in this world or the world to come. Prayer and confession, without good hard work will not put us through college. It will not cause us to become good farmers, good mechanics, good merchants, good musicians or good and efficient anything on this earth and we have a right to presume that the rule holds good in the next world. And still another religious stumbling block to progress is the "vicarious atonement" idea. This idea was invented by lazy people who made a living out of their religion and should have no place in purified ChrisWords tianity the teachings of Jesus of Nazareth.

supporting this idea were evidently placed in the mouth

IS

of Jesus

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

nearly a century after he

51

was dead.

It

is

blasphemy against Jesus and the great Creator of all, to repeat and believe it. The idea of one person suffering for another has No never taken root in any of our wordly affairs. would or woman man sane well balanced or judge, jury stand for it on this earth, and we have a right to assume that the case would be the same in the next world. It is a lazy, cowardly man's idea of salvation on this earth. The manly, womanly way in this world is for each to suffer for their own sins and make our good works our

only salvation. Who can say that this is not the procedure in the next world? To know what are good works in all earthly affairs should be the chief study of preachers and telling how to apply same should be their main occupation. In other words our religious teachers should to practical religion and less attenneed less beautiful words tion to theoretical religion. Let our which are musical air to be blown away. preachers say: "I am not come to preach but to found

pay more attention

We

a new practice in life whereby crime, misery tion may be averted."

and starva-

The following words writen 2500 years ago, are good "The words that come out of man's reading today: mouth, even though they profess prayers and repentance are of little avail before Jehovah. But the words that come out of good works done unto others to raise them up, are as the sound of a trumpet that reacheth beyond the stars." "In all ages of the world there have been deceivers and hypocrites, with Temples and Churches to worship in, professing to serve the Creator, but in fact serving an idol."

"There

is

no resurrection but by developing the

Go ye to work, talents Jehovah created unto all men. therefore and to places of education, that ye may become fit companions of Jehovah's exalted angels." "Neither shall one man judge another, or one nation

IS

52

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

judge another, and cry out, heathen or one people judge another and cry out, pagan." "Their priests and preachers spake good doctrines, but they practiced them not, save a little, as a blind to lead the multitude astray. And they live in fine houses and fare sumptuously every day; and are skilled in oratory and in doctrinal precepts; but they will not go and serve the poor, teaching them how to live." "My judgements are upon those that profess me, dealing out their pittance to the poor, whilst they themselves live above want. When such men die and enter the first resurrection they shall be handed over to those who are in darkness, and their bondage shall be a hunFor they preached righteousness with the dredfold. mouth, but, in their behavior they laid their foundation for the kingdom of hypocrisy. Verily I give unto them the harvest that cotneth of their own sowing. I know no distinctions of men, of races or sects, doctrines or past revelations. All people are My people." ;

O man, in Him, who created thee alive, there can be no mistake. Glorify Him by righteous works, having- faith that even as He brought thee into life, so will He provide unto thee according "Have

about

faith

Him

to thy just deserts." "For I will make

man understand that he shall accept nothing from angels or men because of the name professed. On the merit only of wisdom and truth, and such good doctrines as raise men up out of darkness and poverty and crime, shall they accept either spoken or written words." "And they shall try to organize to carry out good works, but they shall fail. For many will desire to be leaders, being under the influence of selfish considerations, desiring the applause of men." "And they will profess freedom, but they will not pledge themselves to any sacrifice, either of money or opinion for the sake of the public good." "And little good shall come out of their works and

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

53

peace of soul shall come to them. For they and quarrel, being divided in all their ideas, and sentiments, and understanding of real philosophies

even

less

shall dispute

truth."

"Thou

shalt judge thyself; thy spirit is as a manuown handwriting; thou art daily writing thy grade and the place of thy abode in heaven." "Neither prayers nor confessions shall graduate thee in my house, to be companion to such as have passed on before thee. So say I at the gates of exalted heavens, unto the inhabitants of earth Only by knowledge and righteous works done unto one another shall ye be able to endure the light of Kingdoms." script in thine

my

:

my

Our churches have spent

too

much time on

theories

us and not enough time on facts that govern us. Churches should spend more time on the religion of the body which we can know a lot about and less time on the religion of the soul which we never can that

interest

know much about

until we pass on. Our preachers should speculate more on how to make our earthly existence more comfortable, more healthy, more perfect and more helpful to others less fornunate than ourknow that there is misery and crime in this selves. world and that it can be lessened, if we all earnestly try to lessen it. I believe our churches should not only inspire us to make this world better than we find it, but actually cause us to do it. The origin of man is comparatively unimportant to us beside the question of his welfare on earth. Too little religious thought has been placed on earth and too much in the clouds. Life should not be regarded wholly as a preparation for death. I believe Christianity to be as good as any religion on earth, but I am not overly proud that I belong to a Christin nation, for the following reasons: Christianity teaches, "thou shalt not kill," but Chris-" tian nations are the greatest killers of earth. No heathen nation can hold a candle to them, unless they use methods and weapons invented by Christians.

We

IS

54

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE,

Christianity teaches, "thou shalt not steal," yet it takes a Christian nation to steel an empire and get away

with

it.

Christianity takes and teaches the wrong view in regard to social economy, as to methods of bettering the condition of "the least of these my brethren." The Christian idea seems to be indiscriminate giving, without doing anything practical to remove the causes of poverty. It

me

to be weakly trying to bind and soothe of humanity, made by heartless governof earth, instead of commanding these governto cease causing these wounds to be.

seems to

the

wounds

ments ments

Humanity craves something more effective than present day Christianity. Something better than Christianity, something more Christian than Christianity. Somehting that will go to the people of earth and aid them regardless of whether the people "believe" in Christianity or not. Something Humanitarian in its scope.

"Come to Jesus, come to our God, come to our way of thinking in religious matters, or you are heathens even though you are moralChristianity says

come

to us,

ly perfect"

What we need is a world-wide Humanitarian religion, that includes every living human of earth as one of "God's chosen people," a religion that causes all to are brothers and sisters, your God is say to all God regardless of what you think or believe. Your birth and good moral conduct makes you a member of our church if you wish to associate with us. will :

We

my

We

help you all we can and will not dispute with you over matters in which we merely "believe" but know nothing about. Go and make life happier for everybody except those who persist in doing that which people concede to be wrong.

all

well

meaning

We

must quit thinking, and our religion must quit teaching, "the fall of man," that we fell in an instant and can rise in an instant; that we can rise to perfection only through bathing in the blood of innocence that ;

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

55

our Creator can and will change us from ignorance and criminality to wisdom and innocence just by our be-

Our religion must lieving what ancient poets taught. teach the "rise of man" as proclaimed by modern science and unqualifiedly endorsed by the mental giants of our

age; that through education and growth only, can we hope to reach perfection that it all depends on ourselves; on hard, honest, conscientious work. The idea of "vicarious atonement" is a lazy man's dream of progress and a coward's idea of shirking responsibility, kept alive by those who make an easy living out of it. Easy for the preacher to repeat and easy for the drone to swallow. ;

We

must resurrect the

the religion cross,

if

priests,

religion of Jesus

together with

its

and bury

symbol, the

and climb heavenward on earth.

The

cross represents the religion of priests: "Believe or be damned." Kind acts represents the religion of Jesus: "Do as

you wish to be done by." The two kinds of religion

will not mix.

Take your

choice.

Priestly religion is a mental narcotic. It clouds the brain and makes people stupid, leading to mental stagnation and decay. Jesus of Nazareth religion clears the brain like a ray of sunshine in a darkened room, and heralds the morning of civilizations' glorius day to come. His religion, properly taught, will banish wars and lesser evils; will tear down jails, asylums and reformatories, placing real churches, libraries and theatres in their places.

THE CHURCH OF THE FUTURE I see the church of the future as one great building covering the earth, with rooms in every city and village of every nation, where the great mass of the common people of every country go for social intercourse, enlightenment, refinement and pleasure. A social center open every day in the year, where all well meaning people may combine for the good of mankind, regardless of their religious belief or disbelief. A church that leaves everyone free to choose his or her own religion; a happy practical combination of all that is best in modern church, Sunday school, library and theatre.

A church that is the house of man, a Sunday school and week day school for grown-ups of all religions, where truth about human betterment is taught in an impartial, honest, prayerful manner; where all may learn from an unprejudiced standpoint, the moral teachings of Jesus, Confucius, Guatama, and of the wonders of modern

A

science as well as the better teachings of all Bibles. church in which the wtords of man are taught church that pays as much attention to the body of man as it does to his soul. church that is interested whether he is receiving a fair compensation for his daily services for society or whether he is being unjustly dealt with by those who have a little temporary authority over him. church that makes it part of its main business on earth to see that earthly justice is done to all. church that demands a square deal politically and otherwise, for its members. church in which public opinon can be educated, refined and through which it can assert itself in no uncertain manner. church unhampered by theoretical religion, which has always proved to be a divider of humanity; a church which will organize the great common people of earth

A

A

A

A

A

A

to make of earth.

them

A

better, wiser, healthier, happier citizens church for man, not for Jesus; Jesus does

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

57

not need an earthly dwelling or headquarters of timber, Neither does the great Creator of all. brick or stone. But man does need such, and needs it badly. He needs a chruch to teach him that which is worth while in this

and the right way to attain it. A church teaching what the truly great men of all ages have said and are life

saying.

A church with the word Humanitarian shining above each entrance a church of man, in which the best words ;

man

are taught, using the Golden Rule as its guide, proclaiming to the world that God is great and all humans are his children, and that there is no higher worship of our Creator than the service of humanity; that it is better to aid the unfortunate and teach them how to be self supporting and happy than it is to get down and crawl before the unseen and unknown, while church welcoming mumbling a set form of words. all who desire and strive to be better and wiser, and wish to help make this earth a better place for humane man to dwell. church that teaches practical, every day morality; that it is wrong to gamble, that is is wrong to get something for nothing, that it is wrong to take unless you give an equivalent, instead of a church that holds church fairs and teaches that gambling is all right as long as it is done in a small way in "God's House.*' of

A

A

A church that teaches the evils of liquor in all its forms instead of a church that passes liquor to its members calling it the "blood of Jesus"; the same liquor that if passed in a saloon would be called the broth of the Devil

A

by

this

same church.

church that will "come down to earth" and help to give us well fed and protected bodies in which souls worthy to sit with Jesus, may dwell and live this life like self respecting humans, instead of like hyenas, buzzards, wolves and hawks preying on one another. Our church should see that the physically strong, the mentally strong, the financially strong do not abuse

IS

58

the weak.

and go

to

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

Our church should quit mumbling- prayers work educating and refining the great common

people. It should stay out of politics, stay out of religion and stay out of the clouds. It belongs down here on earth among us every day in the week; aiding us to

a higher

mon

and better

life.

religion enough for a church, that all compeople of earth can join to build a new world in

This

is

which world citizenship has its birth. This would be a real "League of Nations," a league of the great com-

people of the various nationalities of earth, who are the real nations, instead of a League of a tew political leaders with a little transitory power, whose successors in office, quarreling among themselves, may at will

mon

human affairs and destroy civilization. God and Jesus are too busy with more important business than to waste any more time on a lot of halfbaked, stiff-necked humans who run their heads in the

overturn

desert sand of selfishness and swear the sun of truth

does not shine. A lot of humans who will allow one crazy nobody to start a world war and kill off seven million of the best

men and women

of earth,

and for

what?

The churches of earth are whining that they are not patronized as they should be, that people do not take the interest in them that they should, which is all true, but, there is a reason and the reason is because the churches do not take a real interest in the people, in their earthly welfare. The churches pray for the peoples' souls while the governments of earth rob their bodies. It may be true that the people of earth have as good governments as they deserve, as their main business in life seems to be to rob each other, but the churches should get busy preparing the people in a practical manner to be worthy of better governments. While the trouble may be caused by individual ignorance which breeds disease economic as well as bodily, which causes all this injustice and unhappiness-the churches of earth should make it their

IS

business

to

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

restore

harmony by commanding

59

their

preachers to study and help solve purely wordly affairs. If worldly affairs are too low and coarse for our spiritually refined ministers to bother with, they are certainly too low and debasing for Jesus and God to fool with. Economics have been left to politicians too long, for too many centuries. Our churches must use their refining and civilizing influence in government and business or make way for churches that will, for churches that Jesus would feel at home in, were he on earth today, Churches whose members can believe or disbelieve that the Bible is the "Word of God" or that Jesus is a God. man or myth. These should be unimportant matters to the church they can only be important to the individual and he should and will decide them according to his intelligence and education. ;

The well meaning, moral men and women of earth spend too much time disputing over whether the Bible is the Word of God or not, and whether Jesus is a God or not, and too little time working shoulder to shoulder trying to

Man

make

this earth a better place to live on.

God-made, and churches and governments man-made. What is God-made is of more importance than what is man-made. It is the man that is important, not the government or church. The church and the government should serve the man. It is the man that suffers or enjoys, that dies and goes to heaven or hell and not the church or government. The church and government should be merely a human means of colis

are

men

together in order to better their condition, simply better the condition of "money changers," politicians and preachers. Simply because one good man believes that Jesus is a God, and another good man believes Jesus is a myth, is not a good enough reason why they should spend their time and energy working against each other. They should be working side by side for the betterment of all. If Jesus is a God, what any one man, or any one lecting

and not

to

IS

60

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

million men, believes to the contrary, does not change the great truth itself. And if Jesus is not a God, the belief of all men of all time does not affect the great fact in the least. While we all know that it is better to believe truth than it is to believe falehood, and that individually speaking, we are all in different stages of development and cannot honestly see truths that are perfectly plain to those a little higher up on the ladder of intelligence, where the view is broader, it ill becomes the person standing on the mountain of knowledge where the view is unlimited, who "knows" Jesus to be a God, to waste his time and energy disputing with his brother down in the valley of ignorance, who does not know it or even "believe" it, where the view is cut off on all sides, when both could join hands and work for better material conditions, without any insult or injury to Jesus. If Jesus is a God he can get along fine without our silly kow-towing. If he is not a God, kow-towing belittles

him.

One life and one world at a time, seems good logic to me. Our present earth life is evidently the foundation for the next life. good -foundation is always very desirable. Our religion should teach us how to live our

A

present

life

properly and not speculate too

much on

life

hereafter. Religion should not teach us practices detrimental to health, or true happiness, which we may Holiness should derive from proper earthly relations. not mean an unnatural life, a hermit's life, a single life, it should mean a natural life in conformity to the laws of human nature a practical life among other people. It should mean to live a natural, healthy, normal life, ;

taking a share in the world's activities. To eat, wear and enjoy, to love and be loved, but to be temperate in all

things.

Our

religion should use exact and scientific explanations, not poetic and symbolic language. People waste a lot of valuable time and energy trying to fathom the meaning of mythical poetry, parables and allegories of

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

61

a remote time, people and language, which creates a world of misunderstanding and endless bickerings and silly arguments on matters that no one knows anything It not only does great harm in this life but about. clouds a clear understanding of the life to come. Our religion should teach the individual that he owes a duty first to himself and next to the world. That his first duty is to improve himself and then to work for humanity a duty he owes to his Creator for the blessings he receives, whether the world appears friendly or otherwise towards him. Out of reverence to our Creator we should disbelieve and disapprove of much that is taught by modern We should believe God to be too wise and religions. to be cruel, vindictive, blood thirsty and disgood honest. These are human traits, and any Bible teaching ;

us that the great Creator of all, has, or did have, these traits at any time in the past, is teaching falsehood. The Christian Bible teaches these horrible things about

God.

Our

religion should teach that virtue brings its

reward and vice

its

own punishment.

own

That blood of

It Gods, men or animals, does not wipe away sin. should teach the moral responsibility of the individual and that the Golden Rule contains the highest morality. That the doorway to reformation is never closed against any human soul, here or hereafter. This is the broad, manly view. Our religion should not teach that death is a penalty inflicted upon mankind and all creatures below man, because the first man and woman offended God and He sentenced them and unborn millions of innocent people as well as animals, to suffer death here, and then be tortured endlessly in hell hereafter, unless they believe the horrible statement that God caused his only begotten Son to be cruelly murdered by an ignorant, vicious mob to appease Gods wrath, and that God's original plans were defeated by a wicked spirit in the

IS

62

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE

r

form of a snake, who, with man, was more powerful than God. Such teachings slander our Creator, the maker and Ruler of our vast universe. Such teachings have the effect of picturing our Creator as a weakling and a brute. Such teachings make religion appear disgusting to the intelligent, such teachings insult refinement, such teachings hamper the church. Our religious creeds were made by ancients, men who believed our earth to be flat and that God possesses all Now some of the passions and weaknesses of men. these ancient men were no doubt honest and did the best they knew how to do. should get busy and see what we can do in a safe, sane and sensible religious

We

line.

Our utilities,

religion should teach that public necessities and which all the people must use to live, such as

water and crude materials provided by nature, should be controlled by the people collectively, and not by individuals to the detriment of the -people who must have these things or perish. Our religion should teach social democracies in which men and women exercise equal social, political, econolands,

mic and religious rights and privileges, in which all are free to do whatsoever they desire to do, provided that, in the doing thereof, they do not infringe upon the rights of or injure others.

We, the common people of earth, need a reformed church, a church that teaches us to come closer together and progress. A church that actually inspires and causes us to be better and do better. A church that will cause our government to look out for its citizens as a father looks out for the interest of his family. Our religion should not only stop men from killing each other in war but should stop men from swindling each other in peace. It should banish from the earth unmerited poverty and the fear of it, unmerited sorrow and unnecessary

pain.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

63

The whole effort of our church should be to find what the truth is, for the truth's sake alone, and not to bolster up ancient erroneous religious thought. religion should avoid the idea of this world being only temporary and of no consequence and that the next world is the all important one, as it is a bad idea It belittles all effort for humans to get too strongly.

Our

to is

make

this

world a better place to

as sacred as

Our justice

any

life

we know

should teach

religion

live in.

This

life

of.

us salvation by truth,

and healthy hard work and not by

sacrifice

and

truth will make you free." Our religion should teach, "a union of all who love It should teach us in the interest of all who suffer." to not take a delight in lording it over those whom chance or accident places in our power, but rather teach us to feel honored that we can serve others. Our religion should cause our governments to quit going around with "a chip on the shoulder," looking for

sacrament.

"The

and then committing murder. has always taught and upheld slavery religion It has instead of intelligent, independent citizenship. always taught "servants obey your masters," "wives obey your husbands," "slaves submit, forget your earthly troubles and store up treasures in heaven," "obey your King, obey your Lord." We need a church that will dwell on and teach the good of all religions, as well as teach correct economic principles and the way to right living here on earth so that we all will get the maximum of enjoyment out of life with the least possible amount of pain and sorrow, throwing the sackcloth and ashes brand of religion in the rubbish heap where it belongs. A church that tells the world that it was organized to bring happiness on earth and not to oppose any other church, but to aid in spreading economic truth as well trouble, finding

it

Our

as spiritual truth, and make better citizens of its members, who are free to join any other church also, that they

IS

64

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

choose to join, without ceasing to be members in good standing in this church. A church that will teach its members but not dictate A church that does not to, and domineer over them. to or control the own body or soul of any memprofess ber. A church that merely desires to guide the intellect of its members towards absolute truth and justice in all things. A church that teaches right thinking and Humanitarian Church, right living.

A

We

must have a new church movement that will teach the wisdom of Jesus, Confucius and Guatuma, to

The myths, fairy tales, woven around them by deluded and dishonest people must be destroyed so as not to dim the true manly worth of these greatest men of earth. The aid us in solving our problems.

dreams and

lies

fog of superstition and cobwebs of error that obstruct our vision of them must be brushed aside so we may see them in all their glory. This would be a grand second coming of Jesus, as well as of the others, and the only second coming that intelligence could expect. I regret very much that it is necessary for me to attack false religion in my effort to aid common humani-

as all false religions are serpents, and he who is indiscreet enough to step on their tails is sure to have venemous fangs sunk deep into his anatomy. ty,

GOVERNMENT DISTRIBUTION seems to me that we must gradually grow towards a combination of individual production and government distribution coupled with government supervision of production in an advisory capacity, more than mandatory, so as not to interfere with individual initiative and individual responsibility. Governments should encourage and aid in a fatherly manner without entering into competition, unless it would It

be greatly to the benefit of a majority of the citizens. While absolute government control and operation of production and distribution may be the goal of our present civilization, I believe we should approach it with caution. That, if it is to come, to be healthy, it must be a gradual growth and not a leap. Private ownership in land beyond a certain point must be curbed. It is certainly not right for one man to hold in idleness ten thousand acres of land while ten

thousand idle men willing to work land, are deprived. Just what the concrete remedy should be is hard for any one person to determine. In correcting old wrongs let us be careful not to enthrone new ones. When the great common people get their minds on these questions they will settle them and settle them fair to every one. But the problem is to get the peoples' minds on the questions in an unbiased manner. The churches can do it after the churches heve been reformed. Our first duty is to reform ourselves get the habit of thinking long and deep before we act, before we vote, before we follow any leader, whether religious or political. Then reform our present churches or organize a new world-wide church, whose principal business shall be to reform governments as well as individuals. church that Hotentots and Christians, Chinese and Germans, Hebrews and Japanese, in fact all children of God can join and feel at home in. A church that will ;

A

IS

66

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

let heaven in the clouds rest for a while, and just pull off its coat, roll up its sleeves, spit on its hands and go to work building a real heavenly heaven here on earth in the ever present now.

Government should take over the large things that individuals or corporations cannot handle so well, for the whole people's best interest. Even as our roads and streets are built and maintained by our^government for the use and enjoyment of all our people. much better this is than for private individuals or corporations

How

to

attempt

it.

that we suffer from some graft, some and some wilful neglect, but no one can incompetency truthfully say that it would be for the best interest of a majority, for our government to turn our roads and If there streets over to private ownership and control. are abuses the remedy is to purify and make better, governmental efficiency, by paying better government officers and employees, better wages, then requiring It

is

true

better service.

In other words take government affairs out of the It can be done if politicians, out of politics.

hands of

common people want it done and will let their wants be known. I do not wish to see individual incentive, individual initiative or individual responsibility spoiled or even "mussed up," as long as they behave themselves and do not go round stealing from and fooling the great common people of earth. As long as they behave themselves, as long as they are honest and virtuous, I say encourage them, advise and help them to prosper. And, with this end in view I would suggest creating and establishing a new member of the Presidents Cabinet, to be known as Secretary of General Information, or any other name, whose duty it Would be. to keep in touch with our people, all our people the rich, the poor, the enterprising, the lazy, the healthy, the sick, the farmer, the business man the man, the woman, the child and "advise" them the

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

67

what our government, our great man-made god, thinks best for them to do, in regard to business, health, courting, marrying, home building, plowing, sowing, reaping, harvesting, dressmaking, cooking, home keeping, business dealings, buying, selling and a thousand other things too numerous to mention that would be of immense value to our brightest and wisest citizens and of greater value to our dullest. It is true our government does some of these things already but it does it in only a retail, peanut stand, sort of a way. What we need is for our government to do this thing in a Henry Ford sort of a way.

what I am trying to get at I will tell story reciting an incident in my life and then you can imagine the rest. About fifteen years ago I was farming in Imperial Valley. neighbor planted ten acres of cantaloupes. About the time the vines blossomed, this neighbor offered to sell me his eighty or one hundred and twenty I have forgotten the actual number of acre ranch. acres, for five thousand dollars which, of course, included the ten acres of cantaloupes. I turned his proposition down cold. One reason was, that I already owned a five hundred and sixty acre ranch. About ninety days later, this neighbor of mine Was counting the cash he had received as "profit" on the ten acres of cantaloupes. Their was a little more or a little less than five thousand dollars, the price he asked for his whole ranch, cantaloupes included. I cleared my decks for action and planted on my ranch, eighty acres of cantaloupes next season. I tended those cantaloupes as tenderly as a society woman does a pet pup. And my, how those melons did grow and mature. I, and my renters, spent about three thousand dollars and expected to clean up about fifty thousand

To

a

illustrate

little

My

dollars. It seemed like every one in the valley got the same notion at the same time and at harvest time cantaloupes

IS

68

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

poured out of Imperial Valley

like

water over the rocks

at Niagara.

The second or third shipment we made we got reports New York that the most of our cantaloupes were

from

rotting on the side tracks; that a few autioned off at ten cents per crate, not enough to pay for the boxes. When I received this word, I had two four-horse loads already to start for shipping point four miles distant. I turned the horses noses the other way and drove to the middle of my hog pasture and dumped several tons of choice melons in nice tissue papers, saving the only valuable thing about them, the boxes. Most every one else in the valley did the same. discharged an army of pickers, packers and teamsters.

We

''Business," all around was demoralized and consequently a lot of suffering, all of which could have been avoided had our government then had a Genral Infor-

mation Cabinet Member. In the first place we raised too many melons. In the second place we did not raise too many melons, as subsequent events proved to my satisfaction. raised too many melons for our one horse, in-

We

dividualistic "distributing" system. The great bulk of our crop went to a few eastern markets while hundreds of markets went without their share. This was one

Another was that we were handling our melons through commission merchants, who, as we afterwards

reason.

made a practice of selling car load lots "at auction" to a confederate at a nominal price the price reported to us, who inside of a day or two would resell at a price several times greater than he bought for, making big money for themselves. Some of my melons, first shipment, or melons of the same shipment as mine, were purchased at $3.50 per crate a day or two after they sold for less than a dollar a crate, at auction. Now under government supervision this would not have happened. Our government should know just how many acres ascertained,

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

69

of melons it would probably be safe to plant the producers, the same as our governments

and warn warns us Our government regarding an approaching storm. should know the probable condition of the melon market, where it is, and about what it will be. Our government should say to the melon growers: "It is safe to plant so many acres of melons. Register early in the season, the number of acres you intend to plant so we may give the information out. Then at planting time tell us how many acres you are actually planting so we may inform others. When the danger point is reacehd we will send

out warning not to plant any more melons, saying: you may follow it or go ahead and butt your own brains out just as you like. do not wish to offend your 'initiative' but take our advice and keep your initiative out of the fire of business if you dont want

We

to get

blistered."

it

People would "sit up and take notice" and millions of dollars in energy and products would be saved each year as well as untold suffering, if these rules should be applied to all business.

This would be a fatherly, Godly

ment

way

for a govern-

There is no question but what, in time, our government would take over the distributing system altogether, but that is for the future. We must grow, evolute, not rush or leap towards a to enter private business.

higher civilization.

The

Christian, the politician, the capitalist

and the

one cylinder statesmen, would keep us standing still on one foot like a sick rooster. The Socialist and Anarchist would plunge us head-long into the ditch. Seems to me there should be enough Humanitarians on earth to outvote them and save the world for the common people, to

whom

it

rightfully belongs.

Come, Humani-

Let us organize a church tarians, let us get together. and educate and steer civilization in the right direction. Let us quit asking God and Jesus to help us so much, us get in and help God and Jesus some.

let

MODERN RELIGION AND BUSINESS gets up in his church on Sunday and Jesus tells how fair, good and honest he was tells what Jesus told us to do tells of the Golden Rule and pleads with us to follow Jesus and "do as we wish to be done by." The choir sings and "peace on earth good will to man" reigns supreme in the church on

The preacher

tells of

;

;

;

Sunday. Now remember this is Sunday. Everybody has just had a bath and put on their clean duds and all are feeling "clean and good." all realize what a

We How

lovely thing Christianity is. refining, uplifting and civilizing the church influence is. all realize that it is the proper thing and wonder why all people do not become Christians and join our church and be good like we are on Sundays.

We

far so good. Now what happens on Monday? these church members follow Jesus in their business transactions during the week? Let us see. There is Mr. Jones, our new merchant, who sat in the front row

So

Do

at church on Sunday and bowed his head a little lower than the rest while the preacher prayed and who said "amen" a little louder than the rest when the preacher

had finished. Mr. Jones has started a new department store

in our After first looking the situation over very carefully, he saw that there were enough merchants in town already for the volume of business transacted, as none of the merchants were rushed with business all making a fair living but Mr. Jones being a better business man, knowing a little more, not being quite so ignorant and narrow as our average business man, with a little more capital behind him, he starts a company in which the preacher and many of the congregation buy stock which

town.

;

;

company proceeds line of

to

open a big store carrying a general

every thing.

Mr. Jones

is

on deck at his store early Monday

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

71

his employees to hustle and get business, business that formerly went to the other stores in town one of which is the little shoe store up the street run by Mr. Dick, a member of the same church as Mr. Jones, and whose wife broke her arm and is almost an invalid. Poor Mr. Dick, his doom is sealed his little shoe store looks deserted since Mr. Jones opened his big store and he does not make enough to pay rent and taxes. He must quit the shoe business in this town or quit it altogether, unless he moves to a smaller town and runs

morning urging

;

1

some financially and intellectually weaker "shoe" man out of business by using the same tactics that Mr. Jones used against him, or goes back clerking. In time Mr. Groceryman, Mr. Clothier and various other Mr. Merchants all travel the road of Mr. Dick, the shoeman. All of them having their personal sorrows and troubles too numerous to mention besides being run out of business and almost pauperized by a member of their own church, associated in a business way with the preacher and many other Christian brothers and sisters.

The

secret of Mr. his superior

Jone's success, is, his superior hustling qualities, his superior financial strength, which, when all combined, spelled success. He could sell his goods at a profit in some instances, placing his sale price below that which other smaller merchants would have to pay buying at wholesale prices. What show did brother merchants have? Did Mr. Jones do by everybody in business as he would wish to be done by? Could any man do by everybody as he would wish to be done by in business and succeed under our present system ? Is the Golden Rule a fraud or is our present economic system a fraud? No reasonable person can uphold both. Many selfish people will try to cloud the issue and throw pepper of false reasoning intellect,

mental eyes. us see what Mr. Jones really did with the He started a help of the preacher and his followers. better store in our town and sold us better goods at

in people's

Now

let

72

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

lower prices with better service. Mr. Jones certainly did a majority of our people a lot of good even if he did climb to success walking on the dead business bodies of our former merchants, which was absolutely necessary for him to do to succeed under our present system. Mr. Jones pats himself on the back while thinking of the "good" he has done, while filling his own pocket book at the same time. Mr. Jones is feeling fine, thank you. He feels two inches taller, he has to wear a hat two sizes larger, he says "Amen" a little louder and in fact the whole Jones family are well satisfied with everything in general and themselves in particular. But how about the fellows who were busted up and pauperized byMr. Jones and his crowd. How about their crippled, sick and hungry children and invalid wives, perhaps, and a great many other perhaps's. Oh, never mind them, Jesus would never give those failures a thought; that's the kind of a fellow Jesus was? Jesus would praise Mr. Jones, Mr. Preacher and Mr. Christian Church Member for the good they did in giving so many people better bacon at a lower price; that's Jesus for you all over?

He I saw a new man in town today. But hold on a little taller than Mr Jones, he wears a little larger hat and little better clothes. He told me that since our community had grown so fast it had called his attention this way and he intends to build an up-to-date store in town, ten times larger then the out-of-date Jones store. Mr. Jones you are doomed, your days are numbered; you will soon be passed on, to keep company with the men you put out of business "So round and round we !

is

.

run"

One man says to me. "I see a great wrong but how are you going correct it?" Me correct it? What are you talking about? As if you or I or any one else could cannot correct it. correct anything. There is

We

This

nothing for us to correct. selfish mortals.

There

is

is

Gods way

a lesson for us

of educating to learn.

all

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

IS

and

73

am

trying to pass it along. It is to bring about a better civilization. It is evolution, mighty irresistable evolution, gradually flowing towards the fathomless sea of wisdom, I

think

see

I

it

God Almighty working

the Creator Himself. Stop it, correct it? Ask something easy of a mortal. Ask him to turn the Mississippi river with his bare hands. All you or I or any human can do is to get out the way and not hinder, but get in somewhere and help in our feeble way to hasten the process even as we can aid nature in the growing of fruits

and

pruning,

cereals,

by clearing the

land,

cultivating,

etc.

Do you

not see the great scheme of salvation that worked out by the Almighty for us humans? being Do you not see the part Mr. Jones played unconsciously? Do you not see the part the merchants before Mr. Jones played? Do you not see the part the merchant after Mr. Jones will play and the part the next merchant will play also ? Do you not see the ultimate result, collective is

This is no man-made scheme. Various men, play their part, in a selfish manner, in various ages and pass on, ignorant of the real position they held temporarily in the great scheme of human salvation, starting with vicious individualism and ending in civilized brotherhood. Come people help, don't

co-operation?

men and

sets of

hinder.

The world

is ready for another decided step forword. should take it. We should not hinder. The step But to will be taken sooner or later, we can hasten it. take it we must brighten the intellect of the great commust mon people and curb our own selfishness. all "do as we wish to be done by." The "spirit of God is moving over the waters of

We

We

thought" of earth, causing mighty mental waves that are lashing into activity the most dormant minds of an extremely materialistic age. The Infinite is clearing away mental rubbish preparatory to laying a foundation for a better race of men. The Master Builder is at work,

IS

74

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

and what seems

to us chaos and confusion is but the orderly gathering of material and workmen to carry on the great scheme of evolution of mankind in the only are all privileged to way in which it can be done.

We

him who hinders. The great war, caused by wrong thinking, has done

help, but

God

pity

much

to clear our mental atmosphere. Nothing but brute force will teach brutal men. The war has taught men some things that they would learn in no way other than knocking them down, and then telling them what to do afterwards. When men are masters the teachings of Jesus sound weak and silly to them. When they become slaves and are knocked down a few times and kicked for falling, they then begin to see the beauty and philosophy in "do as you wish to be done by." When men are rich and powerful they begin to dispute about "who is going to be boss." After they kill off several million of themselves they begin to wonder

what Jesus meant when he said "if thy neighbor demand thy coat, give him thy cloak also." They begin to see wisdom in the sayings of "the son of man who had nowhere to lay his head." They begin to realize that a high order of serving is better than a low order of bossing, any; time.

EDUCATION AND CRIME People are of more importance than dollars, religions and governments, and when these man-made institutions do not serve the best interest of the great mass or majority of people, these institutions should be reformed. In order to have better religions and better governments we must necessarily have better individuals and there is only one way to make them better and that is proper education. They must be induced to think correctly for themselves instead of believing all they hear. All of us have those above us and those below us. We should copy from those above us and teach and help those below us. We should not boast that we are better than others but rather be of humble mind "like John Wesley, who, looking at the poor drunkard in the gutter, said :" "But for the grace of God, there lies John

Wesley." It seems to

me that the average human is a potential All that is necessary to make a criminal, or. what we call a criminal, out of the average person is to make the temptation or aggravation great enough. For instance, take the average Christian gentlemen or lady for that matter, who knows that it is wrong to steal and place them in a cold barren dungeon with no food and stripped of clothing, in which, or near which, is stored plenty of food and clothing unguarded and belet me ask how longing to a disinterested person. many well fed, clothed and housed people, placed in a dungeon as above described, would not take, yes steal, enough food and clothing to meet immediate needs. many of you would starve to death and go completely naked while doing said starving, rather than criminal.

Now

How

steal?

Some may say: "Oh that is different. If I were a creature of circumstances over which I had no control

my

acts

would be

justifiable."

May

be not.

It

might be

76

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

just possible that it was partly your own fault being so cast into this dungeon. It is just possible that had you exerted a little more strength against your captors or used a little more intelligent strategy you might have over powered or outwited them and escaped.

Any way, if you are allowed to use this argument your hypothetical defense, real criminals should be allowed to use the same arguments in defense of stealing. You take people practically devoid of spirituality, with very limited mentality, who can not possibly think deep or straight, who never think much about anything but their own desires and immediate wants, and natural necessities, who are cast into what seems to them a bleak dungeon of want, that is as far as they are concerned, with others around them rolling in luxury by the superior mental and financial strength surrounding them, against which they could not contend, or against which they thought they could not contend (which amounts practically to the same thing) and what is the result? Crime, or what we call crime. Now you law in

abiding, potential criminals should not censure real everyday criminals for doing just what you do under the same circumstances.

these

would

You might say: Had this man, who stole bread and clothing to satisfy his hunger and keep his body warm, worked harder and been more saving he would not have needed to steal when he was out of work. Or you might say he would not work if work was furnished him. You might say a great deal against him that would be all too true. But admitting all that, he became a criminal because the temptation was great enough for his mentality. The temptation might necessarily have to be a thousand times greater to cause you to fall. But few people will fail to fall when the choice is be-

tween death by starvation or what they believe to be such, and falling. Of course, some fall too early. They are the diseased ones morally diseased and should be treated as

such.

Now

what we should

do,

is

make

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

IS

77

conditions and environment better, and we will grow better people. may not entirely eliminate bad but we will people, greatly lessen their number. Some people are born criminals and would commit crime on time rather than do the right thing for cash, but their number is not large and this class of people should be dealt with firmly and humanely, eliminating mushy sentimentality. The more idle people, the harder times There should be are, the more stealing, hold ups, etc.

We

.

no idle people who want and need work and no hard times they are both absolutely unnecessary and would not exist under a correct economic system. ;

Crime, or most of it at any rate, is a disease brought on to a great extent by unjust religions, unjust economic systems and unjust governments, and its only real remedy is education education whose tendency is to make the Golden Rule a living rule and fact instead of a beautiful theory. The day must come when we all shall much prefer helping our neighbor in business, to robbing him. "We must quit going through life with our faces towards the past and our backs towards the future. There is none of us so high but what there are some above us and none so low but what there are some below us. Remembering that what we are is not a credit to us, that had our ancestors been Hottentots, we would be Hottentots also that what we think and do is what counts. And what we think and do depends on what other people thought and did before us on the ideals of our ancestors, their environment and their education. And what future civilization is to be depends largely on what we of to-day think and do. Human greed and lust for power working through religion, economics and governments, cunningly working upon the ignorance and prejudice of human nature, is the greatest enemy of human liberty and human progress. The weapons used are fear, superstition, sarcasm, ridicule and sophistry. "Ignorance is the chain ;

;

;

78

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

that binds the mental as well as the physical in bondage." To have better religions, better economic systems and better governments, we must have better individuals. And to have better individuals we must educate them. To educate them properly and cause them to do correct thinking will bring universal peace to the world. But how are we to do this? It is my opinion that it can be done in no other way than by the churches; by reforming our present churches; by our present preachers quiting their sky piloting, and doing some earth piloting; or by starting a new church movement designed to become world wide, following "teachers" instead of "preachers." It is the human desire of one person or set of persons to rule over and enslave another person or set of persons, that must be fought. The desire had its beginning when some prehistoric man took a rock or club and brained his neighbor, drank his blood and ate his flesh and then appropiated the wife and belongings of his victim. It is the desire of one individual to triumph over and enslave another and appropriate what rightfully belongs to another. Civilized men to-day do practically the

same thing in a more gentlemanly, civilized manner; in a more refined and polite manner. It is slavery in a more subtle form than old crude physical slavery it is more civilized slavery, economic slavery, practiced by individuals, sets of individuals and by nations and sets of nations. They do unto others ;

not as they wish to be done by. This is the trait in human nature that Jesus tried to tame and curb but succeeded no better than a single man trying to control a tornado. There is no such thing as a "Christian nation" or a Christian business firm, on earth to-day and mighty few Christian people, speaking in the broader sense. People who live a Christian life. People who do as they wish to be done by in business on week days as well as in church on Sundays. I tell you it is impossible to be a true Christian in

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

79

live and fare much better than Jesus and paid with his life. And if you or any one attempts it, you will pay with your business life. Modern business men and modern governments, have no use for Jesus, his doctrine or his methods, yet they profess to have. If they did have, and tried to practice the methods of Jesus they would bust up in business; they could not compete with others unless

our world today and

He

did.

tried

it

others did the same. It is the old, old story of men getting what they do not earn, what they do not produce with brain or hands. In olden days they took it by brute force. Today they take it through cunning laws and customs,

strength and trickery, by "interest on and other methods. money" In order to stop it we must rearrange our laws and We must change our ideas. We must do customs. some clear and straight thinking. We must start right. Get down to first principles and nevei" forget our ideals in actual everyday affairs if we wish to correct the injustice that causes so much trouble and we wish to have real everlasting peace on earth. If we will follow just one simple rule, the Golden Rule, to its logical

by

financial

our affairs

it will bring us real peace In the business of the world this rule is not practiced by men, firms or nations. They all preach it to others but ignore it themselves.

conclusion in

all

on earth, nothing

If

you were

else will.

in business,

had a nice

little store,

was

doing well, would you like to have another person open the same kind of a store near you and take away your customers and put you into bankruptcy? Don't we all do it or try to do it? Business as now conducted is a hog eat hog game. Not a game for real Christian gentlemen to play. If you were China would you like to have a lot of Christian nations and a heathen nation, quarreling over which was going to get the biggest slice of you? How would you, as an American citizens, like to hear a lot of 1

foreign nations, most of

them professed Christian nations

80

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

quarreling over which was going to get the biggest slice America? Our own nation does not follow the Golden Rule in dealing with other nations. It dare not, it could not do it and live. It would soon be hanging to a cross as Jesus did if it tried it. This is a deplorable state of affairs but it is a fact nevertheless and it is time we recognized it as a fact and started in to correct it. It can be corrected and will be corrected. But it must be corrected by the great mass of the people of all nations of earth, working together, through a new world movement directed towards that end, justice on earth and universal peace. The common people of earth must work! out their own salvation. Their leaders will never do it. The masses must be educated to work out their own problems and the church is the proper and only place to educate and prepare the people for universal peace on earth. That it can be done there is no question. But it will take considerable time as our whole economic system must be reorganized so as tQ deal out justice to of our

all.

The great common people of earth can bring permanent peace on earth. No other earthly power can

No man or nation alone can correct these evils, are world wide. They are world problems and they must be settled by the great common people of earth. And a movement must be started by which the people

do

it.

can be combined first and then for action. In

my

for enlightenment

movement

opinion this

movement

to

and education

succeed must be

believe that no other movement or organization could ever reach, consolidate and hold in an unprejudiced body, the great common people of earth to study and correct these great economic evils, the evils that are causing strikes and lock outs at home and wars between nations. a church

I believe that

it

as

I

should necessarily be a

new church

movement, a movement outside of our present churches to combine the intelligent and progressive people inside

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

81

of our present churches with the same element out side of our present churches. must get all good, well meaning people together where they can talk and think these great questions over in an unbiased manner. 'This could never be done in a political organization or in superstitious, religious churches, such as a majority of present day churches are. The intelligent people outside of our present churches will never work with them as long as they drink the blood of Jesus.

We

It

must be a new church movement which the present

may join later on, that will act as a cementer of the people instead of a divider. It must be a church that leaves each member free to choose his or her own religion and thoughts of the world to come, while lachurches

boring with his or her neighbors to better conditions in this present life regardless of his or her neighbors views regarding God, Heaven and a future life. Trade or business, causes all our modern wars and domestic disturbance. The first cause Is always the desire of one person or set of persons to get the best of another person or set of persons which causes the aggrieved to strike back.

The row between capital and labor never will be settled until all capitalists are laborers and all laborers are capitalists and under a correct economic system this would naturaly be the case as a correct system will make

a

man

earn

all

he gets and allow a

man

to get all

he earns.

There are a great many reasons why this is not the case under our present system. One reason is that there are too many non-producers too many people who never produce or assist in producing anything, but are always consuming what other people produce without giving an equivalent. have too many bums riding on the backs of the producers. Too many people who do not earn all they get and are wrongfully taking from the people who do not get all they earn. have too many who do not earn practically anything, ;

We

We

82

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

but enjoy the very best of the good things of this life. We have too many lawyers, too many preachers, too many real estate agents, too many politicians and too many soldiers and sailors. All these people must be fed, clothed, housed and cared for by the producers, by the men and women who use their brains and hands to produce and provide. If we should adopt an economic system that would set all this non-producing population to producing it would be better for everybody. Another reason why justice under our present economic system is denied to so many is the idea of raising the importance of the dollar and giving it a position it does not deserve. Everything we need that Nature has not provided is produced by men and women, by hands and brains. Dollars do not work and produce anything. They are not real capital, they merely represent real capital as a deed represents a piece of land. When a capitalist starts into business he takes his dollars and trades them for land, buildings, tools and men's labor. What the men produce is really valuable not the dollars themThe dollars merely represent real valuables, selves. If food, clothing, etc. you do not believe this imagine yourself out on a glazier in Alaska in a storm without food, clothing or shelter, but with a million dollars, and then decide which has the real, intrinsic value, the dollars or the things dollars represent; the things that dollars will buy; food, clothing, bedding, shelter, etc.

Now in our present economic system, dollars are exalted to the high estate of men and women, placed side by side with producers, and given the credit of producing, and allowed to take a share of what is proThis is wrong. duced; the biggest share usually. Dollars should be servants of all men and women, not their equals and masters.

TITLE INSURANCE GRAFT One of the biggest grafts of the "money changers/' the people who have their money "work" for them, is the title graft. Our

governments could furnish its cititzens and guarantee them for one tenth of what our citizens now pay to private corporations that are weak financially when compared with our states, were our state governments given a monoply. This has been proven. There are several reason for this, one reason is that our present system is wasteful and employs three or four men where only one man would be necessary, under state supervision. All large title companies state

certificates of title

keep a complete record of

all property transfers in their particular territory and three or four companies usually cover the same territory. The state or county has the original record which under state supervision would be all that is necessary, and quite an army of people doing

unnecessary work for our present title companies could be released to do some useful productive work. This would take a lot more people off of the backs of our producers and not only lighten the producers loads but these new producers would help the old producers carry the lightened burden. What would the title companies do then? Simply go out of the graft business the same as the saloons did when the time came, the same as No one private banks will do when the time comes. who has been stung by them would mourn and nearly everybody has been stung whether they realize it or not.

There has been a great many unsuccessful attempts

made

to curb the greed of title companies, a conspicious one of which was the Torrens Act of California, under which the state furnishes a better title at about one tenth the charge made by the title companies. "Money changers" could not prevent the passage of the law but

IS

84

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

they practically killed the law after it was duly enacted. How did they do it? Very simple. It shows the power of our "invisible empire." It shows their cunning, subtle way of placing themselves above the law and making their will, law, without the formality of Legislatures.

They got together and had a gentlemens agreement not to loan money on a certificate issued by the state. They say the law is defective. They say many things But we that are only partially true or wholly untrue. notice that the "money changers" are doing nothing to help make the law perfect, so the people will be able to get a better certificate of title from the state in the future for one dollar than they pay the "money changers" ten dollars for, now. You see "money changers" own the stock in title companies and they are not going to aid a movement to put title companies out of business by

money on state certificates. Simple enough. Don't blame the money changers blame yourselves for allowing these things to exist. It is your ignorance that they feed on. Speaking from a financial point of view there are but two kinds of people on earth, "money changers" and would-be "money changers." We will have to get out in the open and look ourselves over as well as our neighbors and agree to be fair with others if we expect others to be fair with us. We must all put away forever, the idea of getting something for nothing. The banker, the title man, the speculator and the merchant, when not engaged in robbing each other, all rob the actual producer, he in turn robs the hired man and the hired man kicks the dog while awaiting his opportunity to rob some one, which rarely comes unless he takes a gun and masks and starts in business for himself. And then we all shout: "Crime Wave!" loaning

We

are

all in it,

we

all

pay heavy interest when we

purchase necessities and if we do not charge interest when we have a chance, we begin to sink rapidly into Bunyons Slough of Despond where we would be no good to ourselves or any one else. We are in Rome and we

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

85

I hope, to do as Rome does until one or one thousand men can change our economic system and no one but a crank will think he can. This is a job for a God to do. We mortals can all help or hinder some. I intend to help if I can, all I I think I see the cause and cure of many of our can. troubles I may be right and I may be wrong, time will

have sense enough,

Rome

tell.

changes.

No

think

am

I

I

right.

me "You would have our government doing everything, bringing you a drink of water in One man

said to

:

the night, you'd make a regular monkey out of our government, you would." Well, now really, it seems to me that others before my time have done a lot towards causing our government to arrive at the ideals I am accused of desiring for it.

In the first place the City of Los Angeles does bring a drink of water in the night whenever I desire it, as well as any time in the day also. Not only this, but

me

brings me water to sprinkle a lawn and water a garden, brings my chickens and cow a drink whenever they want it. It brings all this water between two and three hundred miles and delivers it to me for a trifle over one dollar per month. Now do you suppose a person or private corporation, could or would do this for me at that price, or five times that price, if there was no competition or restraining authority over the person or corporation? Is the City of Los Angeles doing what it should not do in "bringing me a drink of water in the night?" At what it costs the City to do it? shouldn't the state make me a certificate of title for what it costs the state? shouldn't the government loan me money on good security at actual cost to the government? Why shouldn't the government aid and encourage me all it can at cost to the government, to make me a better, wiser and more substantial citizen? shouldn't a it

it

Why

Why

Why

government act fatherly towards its citizens, taking an intelligent and helpful interest in them, instead of acting in a cold, brutal manner towards them? You may say

IS

86

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

does act fatherly at present. It educates them, prothem from the physically strong and punishes them when they go wrong and performs various other services for them too numerous to mention. it

tects

Now I admit all this, and use it as an argument why should do more for us, and improve our condition, especially the condition of the needy, and we have millions of them, who under a better government than we have at present would not be needy. have a good Now let us have government, the best on earth, yes it

We

!

a better government.

America see

will

it

how money

If

so, it will

direct to

common

people of Let us citizens without interest

the great

happen immediately. its

other than actual cost of furnishing the

money would

work.

Under our present system a young man gets married, having enough money to purchase a lot, he builds a house and mortgages the lot and house to pay for the house. He starts paying interest at from 7 to 10% and, under the most favorable circumstances, he will be years paying out. Of course a great deal depends upon the man, his ability to acquire and save money as well as on luck, accident, sickness, hard times, etc. But I venture to say that in the average case no man will have worked for and paid for his home in full until he has worked for and paid for a half a home in interest. He gets the home and the money lender gets the half a home through interest on money, without working for it. Now wouldn't it be a better state of society in which the young man got his home and the half a home as a surplus for educating his family, or for a rainy day or old age, and the money lender would have to work for How much nicer all the homes or half-a-home's he got? He would shake it would be for the man who works.

man who shirks. One man asked "What would people do with their money if they couldn't get interest on it." Oh fudge Use it to buy things with, the same as we do now. Don't quit the game just because you are

off the drone, the

:

!

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

87

not allowed to use loaded dice. People have been using so long to rob each other with that they can't think of anything else but robbery in connection with

money

money.

We

really it

is

must first get straight and clear what money or what it should be, rather, and then not forget

when we consider complicated business transactions. Money is, or should be, nothing more or less than a

bookkeeping system, which enables people to store up, hold, exchange, divide and use utilities readily, while allowing the government a chance to draw its support from The volume of the people in an equitable manner. money should never have any effect on the price of utilities, as the volume should be kept scientifically at the proper amount for the volume of business transacted.

Now

would be a very simple matter under a governmental monetary system, but absolutely impossible under our present system. Under our present system a little "scare" and a large proportion of our "medium of exchange" is withdrawn indefinitely from circulation over night, by the owners, and prices are greatly affected. There is a remedy and a simple one. Under government ownership and control of money, the "scare" would not be apt to develop and this

scientific,

the government could easily stop it if it did, unless was caused by war or some similar rare event.

it

GOVERNMENT When we of today think of government, we must necessarily too often think of a big burly brutal policeman with clubs and guns lording it over the well meaning citizen who leaves his auto at the curb a little too long or commits some other technical "crime" while real criminals are doing a rushing business unhampered must necessarily think too much of by our police. armies, navies, wars, killing and insolent "authority"

We

domineering over its creators, murdering them at will and causing them to murder others and destroy property. We can and must change this. In the distant future

when

posterity thinks of government they will think of a father stern but kind and noble. Stern when its citizens do what all well meaning people concede to be wrong, and kind when its citizens do the best they can, whatever that may be taking a humane interest in the welfare of all its citizens and planning for their better;

ment. Using its great organizing power to raise armies to fight disease, to fight poverty and banish from earth the fear of it, to fight ignorance and crime in an intelligent manner instead of raising armies to kill people. government that will aid men to build and beautify homes instead of a government spending billions to destroy homes, compelling its citizens to kill and cripple citizens of other governments and then turning a cold shoulder to its maimed and crippled soldiers when in need leaving them to shift for themselves getting doughnuts from the Salvation Army, bandages from the Red

A

;

what little sympathy they can from public government that can and will aid its worthy financially instead of a government when in trouble, that will urge and force its citizens to buy its bonds "until it hurts," and then allow those bonds to be dragged through the gutter by the money changers, aye, and the government actually sharing in the financial benefit derived from the depreciating of its own bonds Cross, and

charity. citizens

A

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

89

held by its citizens who bought bonds "until while politicians roll in luxury.

Our future

it

hurts,"

present government loves its politicians, our government will love its common citizens, the

more helpless the

citizen the greater will be the evidence to the better element of the women voters of the world to help put a heart and conscience in our governments. The men left to themselves will never do it. Intelligence and will alone are not enough. It may take a long time to educate the

of the love.

We

women enough

must look

to cause

them

to see their opportunity

and duty. But they, with the help of a few men are Make the issue a religious one the hope of the future. and a woman's natural tendency towards all things religious will bring a better civilization in spite of the

male tendency to triumph over and play lord of surveys, regardless of the rights of other creatures.

all

he

God made

No part of our government needs reforming more than our courts. They are, to a large extent, courts of injustice. An honest peaceable gentleman or lady stands but little chance of obtaining justice in our courts when confronted by a dishonest tricky, fighting opponent who has money enough to hire an able but unprincipaled lawyer.

one expects real honesty in a lawyer. No one expects a lawyer to refuse a case and forego a fat fee because he knows his client to be a dishonest wretch who is trying to use the courts to help him rob some one through a technicality. We have a few honest lawyers. Our courts are crowded with cases that were filed for the sole purpose of robbing or blackmailing some one. There is a way to stop it. But do not expect a set of hungry, morally deficient lawyers to help stop it. They faten on the injustice of our courts. Before the people can stop all this injustice, the people themselves must get away from certain fundamental, superstitious delusions and childish fancies.

No

IS

90

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

The people must get

the dishonest idea of getting out of their minds. nothing They must get rid of the thought of getting rich through gambling or an inheritance. They must depend on study, thought, work and thrift for wordly prosperity. They must cease dreaming of being transformed from criminality to innocense, from disease to health, from poverty to wealth,

something

for

from incompetency to prolife to an exalted heavenly life in an instant. We will all be the same imperfect beings the next day after death that we were the day before our death. We must study and try to learn more about, and follow as near as can, the laws of nature, human nature from idiocy

to intelligence

ficiency, or from a degraded earth

as well.

We must progress and jump up to an environment

evolute, not hop, skip and that we would not be fit to

on account of not being innately worthy. A hog would not be a success in a parlor. Neither would we be a success in heaven until we deserved it until we progessed up to it, even as a tree grows towards heaven. Humanity is growing and our earthly laws, customs and institutions must be remodeled to meet the situation. Humanity has outgrown its present clothes and stands to-day, man grown or nearly so, wearing its nursery garments one half of it sucking the bottle of live in

;

;

Sabbath keeping, superstitious, revealed religion, while the other or a large portion of it in our own America at least, sucks home brew, nacrotics and cigaretts. The silly religionists must quit it, and the booze and narcotic fiends

must quit

it.

neither class, but, were it absolutely belong necessary for me to join one side or the other in order to live my present life through, I would join the home brew crowd, as I consider them the least of the two evils. I

to

certainly have more generosity and kindly humane feeling in their hearts than do the bigoted, selfish religionists who are trying to make mental slaves of us and

They

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

91

take the sun out of our Sunday while scattering gloom like a mammoth grave cloth of a man-made god, over our beautiful earth.

Nearly

all

our earthly affairs need some "fixing."

Our mariage and divorce laws need easy to make a contract of marriage, is

that death alone can cancel.

attention. It is too the theory of which And too hard for two

mismated people to be separated, especially where there are no children to be wronged by the separation. When no children are concerned the separation should be more the business of the two parties themselves, than that of other people. The law should not compel any two to marry or compel any two to stay married when no children are involved. If this were the case there would be a whole lot less inharmony on earth. But when people have children they assume responsibilities that they should not be allowed to shirk even though they must suffer greatly in carrying a burden they willingly

The interests of the innocent should be shouldered. considered first. Marriage should be made harder, much harder than it is at present. And divorce easier when no children are to suffer from the separation. People who are not congenial and harmonious together, should be allowed to seperate without either becoming a criminal as at present. If

marriage was made harder there would be less is, if they were made harder in the right

divorces, that

in a way so that the parties would become better People marrying who do not really know acquainted. each other causes the most of our matrimonial troubles.

way;

ONE CAUSE OF THE LATE WAR The late world war was caused by wrong thinking. The world allowed brutal men to run the affairs of earth and bowed down to and honored their brutality. Such,

men

as Alexander and Napoleon, men who had an insane desire to rule the world and crush under their feet any one who opposed them. The world has too long honored them, when in fact these men were the personification of murder, brutality and lust. Love of humanity was foreign to their natures. They were the despoilers of

homes. They made multitudes of orphans and widows, and filled the ground with the bodies of the best men of earth. They tore down in a day what thousands of other men built up with years of weary toil. They robbed the weak and helpless on a mammoth scale. They were international criminals, but were honored, greatly honored, we honored them and taught our children to honor them. We praised them in school books. This was all wrong. Our honoring them misleads other ambitious men and gives them the wrong idea of greatness. If Alexander and Napoleon, as well as others like them, had been pictured to be the criminals that they were, other men would not be so war like today. We of today had to fight simply because a few men wanted to rule the world. They were trying to out do Alexander and Napoleon, a wrong thinking worlds greatest heroes. Had these men been hung as they should have been and had the world been taught that any man or set of men who tries to intimidate the world, should be dealt with as dangerous criminals, the world war would not have been fought. Ambitous men would be exerting their energies to build, not destroy, to make homes happy not to bring death and cripples to them. It is a human weakness to crave honor, great honor, and what the world honors, men will strive for, will lay down their lives for.

Ideas run the world and a bad idea

is

more dangerous

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

93

then a gun or a plague circulating through the land. No permanent peace can come until the world adopts the "live and let live" policy, the "do as you wish to be done by rule"; until we quit being proud of wholesale murderers. The attitude we should take towards the one of pride but one of killing that our boys did do, is not should be sorry that it is and was necessary sorrow. should look on it as an unpleasant for them to kill. duty they performed for us and our attitude towards them should be one of gratitude, not heartless indiffershould feel sad because it was necessary for ence. should not be proud them to murder and destroy. of it but rather teach them to be sorry that it was necessary. Teach them that it was necessary because we older

We

We

We

We

people made it necessary through wrong thinking and neglect to curb vicious teaching and vicious men in time. Before this earth can be made safe for democracy Before we can it must be made unsafe for brutality.

expect humane action we must plant humane ideas. must cease teaching our children that men who kill great.

The world

is

We

are guilty of honoring the brutes that

We

the Kaiser patterned from. must do some real hard thinking now that the fighting is over for a spell. This war raised up a new crop of heroes. Let us give them a sane and enlightended appriciation and not a blind and superstitious homage. Selfish and designing men propagate wrong ideas in politics, religion and every day affairs. The next great war will be a battle of ideas.

We

must propagate new and

better conditions.

better ideas

if

we want

JESUS OF NAZARETH

We should study the teachings leaders, others.

of the world's greatest of Nazareth, Confucius, Guatama and best of their teachings put into practice, will

Jesus

The

bring world peace and prosperity. Few, if any, leaders who ever lived on this earth since our present written history began, can approach these moral giants in wisdom. Their best thought put into everyday practice will save the world. The trouble is few people of earth know

what these men

really taught. The fact is they all taught practically the same thing in substance, especially in regard to morality, man's duty to man. They were great and good men, the world's greatest. But they were all men, not gods, and the preponderance of evidence at our command proves that none of them ever claimed to be a god, and the writings that put such words in their

mouths, embarass and slander them, thereby lessening their power for good on earth among enlightened and thinking people. The history of their own doings and sayings proves this to an unbiased, thinking person who takes the trouble to investigate. They were born as other men are born, grew as other men grow, in both body and mind, changing their views and opinions from time to time. As they grew older, of course, they became wiser, greater and better. It is too bad that Jesus could not have lived longer. At first he distinctly stated his Gospel was not for the Gentiles. At that time Jesus was narrow a patriotic Jew, but the persecution by his own people, evidently drove him to broaden out and include all of humanity in his program. The Bible accounts of Jesus are so contradictory and ambiguous regarding his teachings that it is hard for anyone to be positive of just what Jesus did say or do. Hence the endless arguments and disagreements when people read the accounts without first putting blind, uneducated faith where reason should be. ;

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

95

The coming of Jesus on earth did not change it much for the better. Before he came, people were good to their friends, killed their enemies and robbed each other whenever they thought they could get away with it. Since the coming of Jesus about the same thing happens right along, with the possible difference that a good deal of the robbing and killing nowadays is done in the name of Jesus.

Jesus was a great moral teacher who originated, as was concerned, or repeated what those born hundreds of years before him taught, it makes no difference which we must follow his main teachings or never have universal peace on earth. Nothing but his teachings or the best part of his teachings, put into everyday practice will stop wars. far as he

;

We

must not do as Jesus did, nor must we do all should that Jesus is supposed to have told us to do. not follow the words and teachings that were put into the mouth of Jesus after he was dead, by designing priests. Neither must we literally follow Jesus that is, do as he did. Simply because it cannot be done. To begin with we would all remain single and no children would be born on earth, which would annihilate the human race inside of a century.

We ;

Next,

we would

all

be traveling preachers, living

and producing nothing ourselves storing up nothing for the morrow on this earth but we would be going ragged, hungry and cold while storing up treasures in heaven, after deserting our fathers and mothers, our wives and children as the mythical Jesus of the Gospels commanded (words of priests, not of Jesus). We would not resist evil. "Resist ye not evil." (words of priests only, to cause people to submit to injustice practiced by kings, nobles and priests.) We would discharge all the police forces and allow the evil minded to abuse our wives and families. I say the man or woman or book that says Jesus of Nazareth ever uttered any such nonsense is deliberately falsifying or is greatly off of others

;

;

IS

96

mistaken.

I

do

I

so,

but

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

am am

not sure that Jesus really needs me to going to stand up for him. I am going

to take his part against these people who are trying to that Jesus was a divine idiot. No sane person will say: "resist ye not evil", and mean what he says. Jesus fought evil with all his power, like a red blooded sane man, taking the Bible for it. If we judge Jesus by all the Bible says of him, he flatly contradicts himself.

make out

He was

evidently too wise and good a man to do this, I do not belive all the Bible says of him. According to the Bible Jesus utterly ignored human slavery which was universal at his time. Had Jesus no pity for the poor galley slave chained to his oar for life? I believe he did have and I believe so great and good a man as Jesus, condemned such slavery with all the force he could command but why is it not recorded? Ask the shades of those ancient priests who manipulated therefore

our religion in its early stages, they know why. Had Jesus no pity for the victims of white slavery that prevailed everywhere in his day? Again ask the priests why his protest was not recorded. Had Jesus no pity for the mother and babies made fatherless and perhaps

homeless through his supposed "command" to the father to forsake them and follow Jesus? And again ask the priests why this went into our Bibles this way. The father who would desert his loving wife and helpless babes to follow any man or any man-made god, is certainly a demon and an imbecile. Then what did Jesus say? It is almost impossible for a sane thinking person to answer this question, as Jesus was an uneducated man and evidently could not write. Had he been a God he could have written anything in any language and it is reasonable to suppose that he would have written had he been able to do so, instead of trusting to luck to have his words transmitted down the ages. He would have known that he would be misquoted, misjudged and misunderstood, and would have placed his sayings on parchment, or stone or metal, in

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

97

language so plain that any normal person could understand what he meant. But the facts are, if we are allowed to use our reason, that he was not a god, not even an "educated" man as we understand the word that he was a wandering, homeless, churchless preacher, a political and moral outcast of his time, a tender-hearted man, overflowing with pity for common humanity an honest, earnest uneducated man, with wonderful natural ability as a thinker and moral teacher of the human race one of those rare characters appearing on earth at widely ;

;

;

separated periods of time.

Jesus as a man was a success he was humane he was grand but Jesus as a god was a failure. Physically speaking, he was a weakling. Imagine a god nailed to a cross by human demons with blood streaming down his body, and being tortured into admitting that he was not a god when uttering the words "My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?" Does this picture excite your admiration. Would ;

;

;

like to see such enacted in real life. What can a reasonable person get out of such a picture but "pity", and hatred pity for one of the greatest and best men who ever lived, and hatred for his tormentors. I cannot admire the picture. I cannot admire Jesus as a god, who would allow his creatures to become so debased as to murder their own Creator. I do not think it is a beautiful picture at all. I think it is terrible; and I think any human who would desire to have such a monstrous thing happen then, now, or at any time, is a monster. It is on a par with the ancient Christian custom of burning witches at the stake. And I, for one, am not proud of Jesus hanging on the cross. It seems a terrible thing to me. I pity him from the depth of my heart and I hate and abhor the devils in human form that would and did commit the crime of nailing Jesus to the cross. You say it was "God's plan?" You slander God.

you

;

It seems to me that any mortal that would be willing to take a benefit from the fact of Jesus being murdered

98

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

on the cross is supremely selfish, to put it mildly. I had rather be lost than to have a grand and good man murdered that myself and others could be saved. The idea is hideous and repulsive to me. I hold that anyone who will wish to be saved through the murder of Jesus must be now glad that Jesus was murdered. And a person who is glad Jesus was murdered deserves either pity or censure. The Roman soldiers took a benefit they "divided his raiment." I cannot see where we of today would be any better, should we take a benefit, than the

Roman soldiers, if we accept a place in heaven because of, or through the murder of Jesus. I believe that in the sight of the Almighty we would be just as contemptable as the Roman soldiers. I, for one, cannot accept a reserved seat in heaven bought with the blood of Jesus, the murder of Jesus, or any other human. I could not live happy in heaven stained with the blood of any one, let alone one of the grandest men on earth. If this be religious "treason, make the most of it."

We are too credulous. We have ,been accepting without question too long what our leaders have been dealing out to us. What they have been telling us about religion, about economics and about various other things. We must do more thinking ourselves. Especially on religious matters as religion is the foundation of all human affairs. When a man or nation goes wrong, blame his or its religion. It will be because religion failed to teach what was right. And if you want to reform a man or a nation, reform his or its religion, and everything else will be easy. One of our main defects, is our tendency to scorn anything new and worship anything antique or ancient in ideas. If I, or anyone else, should tell you, that I had seen God, or that I had walked and talked with God, or that God or God's angels, had given me commandments to transmit to the people of earth, I, or anyone else, making such statements, would be discredited by all intelligent thinking people of our time. But many of

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

99

same people readily believe, as exact truth, such things, when stated in writtings of ancient times; evidence that would not be allowed in any court in the land is this so? Simply on the most unimportant case. these

Why

taught

we have grown up

in the belief, and have been that to disbelive, is to be a traitor to our bringing

because

We must break away from our bringing up, and do some thinking, if we want universal peace on earth.

up.

-

We

do not need a real

new

new

religion.

We

need a

The

Christianity. teachings of interpretation Jesus, relating to our conduct towards our fellowmen, are not silly, they are not weak and inpractical they are of

;

not something to hear on Sunday and forget on Monday. They are the essence of wisdom and justice, and we must at least try to follow them if we are to better our earthly conditions.

Jesus taught a real live religion, bringing men together and connecting them with their Creator not the dead thing that we have served to us today, teaching that God has gone from earth. Jesus taught human In Matthew 25-31 read the last sermon he service. preached on earth. His summary, the essence of all his teachings. What he tells us we should do. See if you ;

any church going, Sunday keeping, long praying, "chosen people," "vicarious atonement" or "fall of man" nonsense in it.

find

When

you Christians are up for judgment in the you will not be asked what day you called the Sabbath or whether you kept any you will not be asked what church you belonged to or whether you belonged to any. You will be judged according as you ministered to the physical, social and moral necessities of mankind, without your asking whether or not they believe in Jesus or whether or not they belong to any church. According to Matthew, this was the last sermon Jesus preached on earth, the summing up of his teachings. hereafter

;

Now if this is not true, Matthew to say the least, is mistaken and should not have been allowed space in the

IS

100

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

true there is! just one thing for us to do to accept it at once and start to putting it into practice. Make this a part of our religion and then put our religion to work make politics serve our religion. The state must be controlled and dominated by the moral sense of the community. In other words the state must have a conscience and a heart as well as a will and a mind. The best governed people will be the people with Bible.

If this is

and that

is

;

a high moral sense and who use that high moral, or religious sense, in running governmental affairs.

made the servant of true religion, the governmental relation between men, belongs to the moral or practical branch of religion and should be considered subordinate. No one, but a truly Politics should be

for

politics,

religious person, should be allowed to hold office under

our government.

What I mean by a truly religious person, is one who unselfishly desires to help .others. One might be a regular attendant at church, an alms giver, repeat long prayers and even be a preacher and still be irreligious. The truly religious person looks on the natural Word of God, the universe, with reverence, awe, admiration and love for his Creator and he intensely desires to make himself worthy the blessings bestowed upon him, by aiding others, the only practical way to show his appreciation for the blessings of life. The real relgious man does not try to humilate or deceive himself or his Creator by asking for the unreasonable. The practical essence of true religion is the Golden Rule. What you do is what counts, not what you "believe" regarding the miracles, mysteries, fables and fairy tales repeated to you by those who know no more about them than you do. "As ye did unto these, the least of your brethren, ye did This tells you what is expected of it also unto me." you your duty is to help your "brethren" win the battle of life. For life is a battle from the time we struggle to draw our first breath until we do the same to draw our last. battle against sickness and poverty, against ;

;

1

A

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

101

temptation and sin, for what conscience tells us is right. it is our duty to make this battle against poverty as light as possible for those that are less able to fight the battle than we are. For everything we eat, wear and

And

much that we enjoy is produced or acquired by human labor and by human labor alone. Capital does not produce anything, it paves the way for labor and is deserving of its reward, and every normal, healthy individual should be compelled to produce his or her share by either manual or brain work. (Money is not capital, it merely represents capital, as a deed represents land.) Everyone disabled should be tenderly cared for. Under our present system there are too many drones that must be supported by the workers, this is the fundamental reason for the world's unrest. Our unrest is not so much a political one, it is economic. If all the world should become one grand democracy in an instant, it would not affect our world unrest in the least; strikes, riots, and civil wars which are worse than international wars would continue. Capital is not wholly to blame neither is labor, although both are unreasonable at times. The cause is deeper seated. Capital and labor both suffer at the hands of the "drones" who draw from both, through "interest on money" and otherwise. Abstractly speaking, it is our system that education civilization has caused us to outgrow. The average

and

man knows

hazy manner that something is wrong, just what it is. Our whole economic system must be changed before we possibly can have a just and permanent peace on earth. Monarchy, true monarchy, not a few crowned heads, must be banished from the earth by the Golden Rule in the hands of the earnest, intelligent, awakened, common people of earth. No, it is not going to happen today or tomorrow or next day. There are too many would-be Kaisers running our affairs to allow it to happen. Too many selfish, but does not

in a

know

We

irreligious, ignorant leaders that we blindly follow. are going to continue doing just as we have done in the

IS

102

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

past; have strikes, riots and wars, rest awhile, have good times, panics and hard times and go at it again regardless of what the League of Nations or the Disarmament Conference at Washington does until the masses become educated enough to accept true religion and put it into ;

practice.

What

a

horrible

mess we humans have made

of

earthly matters the last ten years, and to the thinking person the future is not very promising. The League of Nations in any form will not correct our troubles. The cause of the world's unrest is injustice that the League must down the unof Nations does not hint at. crowned Kaisers who have an insane desire to rule others,

We

political power, religious power or money power, the people of earth are to be free. What we need on earth today is more people who think. More people who really believe in bringing about a civilization in which the Golden Rule can be used. The hardest work on earth is real thinking. The man or woman who thinks a valuable, original thought, once a month and gives the world the benefit of it, is worth

through if

to humanity than a thousand manual laborers. Subtle, spiritual power, thought and ideas, is back of and runs our physical world, and in proportion to the extent that a human puts himself en rapport with the finer forces of nature he becomes of value to the physical world and rises above the brute. What we should have on earth is not more people but better people. Not edu-

more

cated

human

parrots but educated thinking people.

draw an

Under our present system

a

man

I

to see

my

accumulates,

we

illustration that may cause point in regard to interest on money.

will

you

will say, one million dollars. For the sake of argument we will assume that he got it honestly that he produced for society that many dollars worth of things to eat, wear and enjoy, and would therefore have a clear right to return the money to society at any time and demand such things as he cared for, up to an equal value. ;

We

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

103

he has but one child, a son, and he dies the graduates and is twenty-one years of age. He leaves the entire million dollars to him. The son takes the money and loans it out at five per cent, interest, and receives fifty thousand dollars per year which he spends on himself and family. The son does this for fifty years, then dies, still having the million dollars as good as it was the day he got it. He never did any will say that his son

day

work whatever in him had the best ;

his life; had many people serving of everything of earth, but produced

all

He consumed two million five hundred thousand dollars worth of good things of earth, produced by human labor, and still had his perfectly good million dollars when he died. absolutely nothing.

Do you

see anything

wrong with the system

that

allows this?

One man says: "Well, this young man certainly did a lot of good, circulating fifty thousand dollars a year interest money among his neighbors, besides the million principal. It was good for his neighbors to have this money circulating, and he circulated it. He made business good. All the interest money that came into his possession went right back into circulation. Had he hoarded his fifty thousand a year interest money he would have done a lot of damage." Now, people, this is an old and favorite song of the defender of the "greatest financial system on earth." While the money changer puts money into circulation he certainly takes products, utilities, out of circulation. He puts a few dollars into circulation with a string tied to them so he can pull them back again and take his pick of the finest autos in the land as his "interest" on money, and in due time gets his original money or principal back as good as ever, none the worse for wear, and then proceeds to pull another auto or something else out of society's storehouse without really giving anything in return. He uses money as the bait, while fishing for the good things of life and uses the same bait

IS

104

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

over and over again without any injury to the

bait.

At the end of fifty years his bait is as good as it was when he started in. Of course, under the present economic system it is necessary for him to do this in order to circulate money, to get money to do business on, but this cannot, in reason, be used as an argument in favor of our present system against a better one, Our present economic system was evolved when wooden plows were in use or near that time and was probably the thing for that age, but it is not the thing for our time.

We

will

some good

man in question did money back in cirby doing it. He gained

admit that the young

in placing the interest

culation, but see what he gained thousand dollars worth of autos, fine clothes, the best of food, attentive services of others, and all luxuries of life that but few enjoy, without giving anything in return -except putting ;money into circulation, which would not be much of a virtue under a correct economic system, as the government should and would do this at one tenth the cost to business as at present.

fifty

To make my

idea a

little

this million dollar lad lives

plainer,

we

will say that

on an island with twenty

thousand neighbors, and his million dollars is all the the island. Now civilization or down-to-date civilization, could not exist on this island without a

money on

million dollars to facilitate the exchange of utilities. You will be able to see that this young man, or money changer, did not actually "circulate fifty thousand dollars a year" as stated above by my critic. He merely circulated the original million dollars and drew from the twenty thousand neighbors, fifty thousand dollars worth of utilities produced by his neighbors as yearly rent on his million dollars. He did not circulate more than a million dollars because there was no more than just one million dollars on the island. Interest is

never paid a subtle

in

way

It is it is always paid in utilities. "acquiring" the good things of life

money, of

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

105

without working for them. The principal is paid in money, that is, the money borrowed, is returned. This money changer "accomodated" his neighbors by letting them use his money and in return his neighbors supported him like a prince for the "accomodation." Do not blame the young man. He was educated to believe it proper. But his education was wrong. Education made a parasite out of him without him or a majority of his neighbors realizing it. Now let me tell you, people, Jesus knew a lot about business. But he lived in a time that it was dangerous to speak the truth and be caught in the company with Justice. So Jesus was compelled to cover up much of his best thought and real wisdom with the bushel basket of fable and allegory, in order to live as long as he did live. Jesus was a man, not a god, and he had to respect the brutal laws and customs of the land the same as we

must outwardly respect brutal and unjust laws and customs today.

Now

the sane thing for these twenty thousand island neighbors to do, as well as the sane thing for the inhabitants of this island earth of ours to do, is to publicly own and control the necessary money to transact business with.

How can it be done? By simply doing it. How do we own and control the postal system? How will we some day own and control our railroads? How do we own and control our wagon and auto roads? If we did not own and control them how would we go about it, to do the easiest thing in the world to gradually accomplish governmental ownership and control of money and kill hard times for ever, if the common people will just wake up long enough to elect men instructed to bring it about. Do not pay any attention to the howling of frenzied finance cayotes. One of these cunning pests will sound like a whole pack of wolves when he gets out in the desert of financial mysticism and begins to warble to you fool crows sitting on a limb with big pieces of it?

It

is

IS

106

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

"interest" cheese in your mouths. He will charm a lot of you. You will drop the pieces of "interest on money" cheese into the money changers mouths and go hungry listening to flattery and religious and economic false-

hood, while your charmers grow fat and prosperous. This has been the style for centuries. If "you all" like it just keep it up. Do not let me disturb or interrupt you in the least. I can stand it if you can.

"Now look here, your new Another man says fangled economic system would put an end to all business transactions where the men who engage in risky transactions cannot put up good security when borrowing money to transact such business. For instance If a prospector can borrow five hundred dollars he may be able to go out and find a mine worth five million. Under your system he could not get the 'money from the government to finance his doubtful venture, because he has no security to pledge. This state of affairs would put a stop to a lot of business that should not be hindered." :

:

The above was the opinion of a Los Angeles banker pretends to "know a thing or two" about finance.

who But

let

us see

:

In the first place, a correct economic system under which our government furnished to its citizens all the money they needed to exchange products (without interest, other than the actual cost of the service), real necessary, legitimate and conservative business could and would flourish without paying a tribute to the money changers. In an economic sense, those who do not have products to exchange are unworthy, and should not ask or expect money. The worthy can pledge products. They should have something to exchange first, before giving the question of money a thought. They should offer labor of brain or hands, or the product of labor, in trade, or as security for the labor or products of labor of others, before they have a moral right to ask or expect

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

money, which should simply represent

utilities,

107

as a deed

represents land.

We

do Our present day economic thought is wrong. not start at the beginning. When we want anything, our first thought is where we can get the money to make

the purchase, regardless of whether we have produced its equivalent or not. Our children should be taught that they have no moral right to what they do not earn unless it is a free gift from someone else and that free gifts are not always the proper thing, as they have a tendency to weaken character and make charity hounds out of what should be self supporting manly and womanly men and women. healthy young man or woman who does not earn his or her living by brain work or manual work, is a charity hound.

A

Now

coming back to our banker friend's objection. say, that for the life of me, I cannot see how killing interest on money and establishing a correct economic system would disturb him and his propector friend or I will

Furnishing necessary business and trade with plenty of money to do business with, would certainly not prevent a banker or anyone else for that matter, from letting all the money he had, out to all the prospectors he cared to, without any security whatever and charging all the interest, risk money, insurance money, or profit the prospector or wild cat business man is willing to pay him. I do not think this would be the affairs of anyone else. They could do the same under a correct economic system as they do under our present system. The banker would be privileged to loan all the money he cared to at any rate of interest he cared to charge and could get, and the man who preferred to give the banker no security and all his profits would be priviledged to do so. While the business men, the farmers, the manufacturers and the merchants who were responclient in the least.

were economically worthy, who really had something to exchange, could get all the money they needed to exchange utilities with, without paying any interest sible,

IS

108

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

other than actual cost to the government for the service rendered, which would be less than two per cent instead of six, eight and ten per cent, as at present. must give up the little selfish idea of getting something for nothing and similar ideas. This is the main thing to do first. All our business world must, in time, be carried on under the co-operative plan, which is the Golden Rule in business, instead of under the "Iron Rule," the competitive system as at present whose motto is "do the other fellow before he does you," which leads are growing towards to strikes, riots and wars. better conditions, we can hasten the growth. Capital and labor should be merged. All should be laborers. Whether with pick and shovel or pen and ink, whether doing the actual manual labor or making the

We

We

plans for and superintending it. It can all be figured out satisfactorily

do

if

we

will to

it.

Everbody should be able to see that there is more and misery on earth than there should be. There is a cause for everything. What causes so much inharmony? Is it necessary? I think most of it is unnecessary that it is caused by and it is the and that ignorance greed, duty of everyone to inquire into the matter and do what they can to help injustice

;

correct matters.

am

stating what I think is the cause and what I the cure. If you think different, trot out your views and let the rest of us look them over. This sort of procedure in time is bound to accomplish a lot of good. Do not be a "molly coddle" and stand back and I

think

is

criticize

what

something

I

better.

recommend

without

recommending

BLOOD OF JESUS We

must get rid of this cannibalistic idea of eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus of Nazareth. This is an ancient heathen custom. disgusting horrible, pre-historic custom, coming down from the time when all men actually practiced killing each other as they kill and eat animals today.

A

There is no Christian today who would actually, and knowingly eat the flesh and drink the blood of another human unless they were in the last stages of starvation. Then why do it symbolically? Why act like silly children and play eat human flesh and drink human blood ? It is not reason, it is not nice, it is not beautiful. It is horrible. It was not taught by Jesus and any one who says that Jesus taught -it, slanders him. It is words put into the mouth of Jesus after he was dead, by those who had a selfish interest in doing so. Many will ask: "why do you make such a fuss over these things, the private beliefs of people? What harm can they do you or others, even though they are all you say they are? Are you trying to deprive the individual of his religious freedom, of the right to believe as he likes and do as he likes, so long as it does not injure others? And pray how can it injure others who are not interested, when such symbolic worship goes on in churches whom no one needs to attend unless they so desire? What has this or similar religious beliefs and practices got to do with strikes, riots, wars, poverty, hard times, world unrest and such?" Now just listen prayerfully a few? moments and I will

show you.

first place let us remember that we are all You people, just ordianry plain well meaning people. must not think that I am trying to put anything over on you and I will take it for granted that you have a reason, are willing to use it, and that neither of us cares

In the

IS

110

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

for anything in this matter but real truth and justice. That I am not arguing just to get ahead of you in an argument, and that you really want to be put right if you are on the wrong road. I have two objects in view, one is to clear your mind of rubbish and the other is to clear Jesus' name of slander.

In the first place, this symbolic practice was invented to bolster up and perpetuate the "vicarious atonement" idea and the vicarious atonement idea was invented to bolster up the "fall of man" idea. The whole trouble starts with the "fall of man" idea. Once admit that, and then the "redeemer" idea gains a foothold. If there had been no "fall of man" there would have been no need of a "redeeemer," a "Christ," and there would never have been an assertion that there was or would be one. If there had never been any rain, there never would have been any waterproof umbrellas. But as rain* makes the invention of umbrellas necessary so does the "fall of man" make a "redeemer" necessary in the minds of some people, as nobody wants to be lost. To the average mind it would seem that good works, not good beliefs would be a better plan. It would be, in dealing with

earthly affairs. affairs

Why

is it

not in dealing with heavenly

?

But the men who make a will all say with plan, who is he, to

living out of their religion "He is criticizing God's to place his judgment against

one voice:

presume

God's judgment." Now just hold on a niinute Mr. Preacher, I am too humble a mortal to criticize God's plan, or to even presume to know what God's plan is, if it is not "evolution," as all the really educated men of today tell us. Before anyone can rightfully accuse me of criticizing God's plan he must prove what God's plan is, first. Where do the preachers get this "fall of man" and "God's plan" from? They get it from Genesis. And what is Genesis? Who wrote it? Where did the author live?

IS

What to?

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

idea did he intend to convey? did he write Genesis?

What was

Ill

he up

Why

No living mortal can positively answer any of these questions and prove the answers to be true by evidence that Would be accepted in any court in our land. They must use hearsay evidence, men's opinions at best, nothing* more. Let me ask: taking men of equal intelligence, is it not true, that the man who does not make a living out of his religion is as able to judge in an unbiased manner, as the man who does make a living out of his religion? Nine tenths of the criticism against me for saying what I do, will come from the latter. This is what I think about the Genesis story. I may be right and I may be wrong. If any one can prove, by reasoning and there is no other way to prove it that I know of, I would be glad to hear it. Genesis is a very ancient poem written by a master poet of his day. A deep thinker, a man with a heart, and Genesis was evidently a masterpiece in this poet's time. a dozen reasons; one me think so?

Why

indulges in flights of imagination. The the way it causes our thoughts to soar

What makes the way it

is

way it is written, when we read it,

even at this distant day in its incomplete, garbled state. It has been translated many times, losing some of its original beauty at each translation. It has come to us from ancient times in a battered condition as an old and faded garment or an old and broken piece of furniture handed down and passed along from the dim and distant past. This ancient poet beheld the glory of the universe and being somewhat unlike the ox at the manger, whose only thought is to fill his stomach, the sight of the wonderful things this poet beheld filled him with awe and admiration for the great Creator of it all. His soul was thrilled and he tried to pass some of that thrill on to his fellow travelers on earth. When he gazed upon the heavens he saw nothing but beauty and harmony. When his vision was turned earthward he saw beautiful trees, flowers, fruits and grains

IS

112

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

man to enjoy, but, when he gazed at man he saw mostly discord, inharmony, selfishness, greed, and jealousy. He saw men enslaving men, he saw men brutally murdering other men and appropriating their belongings. He saw but little of the beautiful and harmonious in man's soul and he was at a loss to account for it. It evidently seemed to this ancient poet that there was no other way to account for man's depravity other than the "fall of man" and his wonderful imagination gave us this solution. He could not bare to think that an all wise loving Creator would will this earth to be, and then straightway fill it full of want and misery to last throughout eternity. To him, man in discord seemed to grow. He thought that God surely did not make him so. That man must have fallen, no other way to cause the horrors he beheld. For all was universal harmony excepting man alone. Therefore man must have gone astray, must have fallen from the beautiful harmonious image that alone could come from so great a Being as the Creator of All. for

But science today tells us that man never fell. That evolved. That he is higher today than he ever was. That he has been climbing for hundreds of thousands of years. Science teaches the rise of man and can prove it by evidence that would be accepted in any court in the

man

Now there is just one thing certain, either science and our courts are wrong or this "fall of man" theory is wrong. And if there was no "fall of trian" there was no need of a "redeemer" and of course none ever came. But how about Jesus, wasn't he our redeemer, didn't he claim to be our redeemer? No, a decided no to both questions. These words were put into his mouth after land.

who accepted the poetic as a fact, tried to save man from the hole the ancient poet put him in, by inventing the "re-

he was a long time dead. Priests "fall

of

deemer"

man" idea,

and long

after Jesus

of

Nazareth was

dead, they attached this "redeemer" tag to Jesus. This very thing is what has handicapped the teachings of

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

113

Jesus throughout the centuries educated, intelligent and thinking people will not stand for it. This was a slander, a libel against the name of Jesus, and must be cleared up so the whole world can intelligently follow Jesus or rather his teachings and build a better world. ;

Now to answer the question "what has all this to do with hard times, poverty, wars, etc?" Now listen again. What you do, depends upon what you believe. If you believe you cannot wade a river will not try

If you believe a thing is poison you the other hand if you believe you can wade a river and that it would be a good thing for you, we know about what you would do the first chance you

you

will not eat

it.

it.

On

got.

Now, if you believe that symbolically eating the flesh and drinking the blood of Jesus is going to save your soul and secure you a permanent home in heaven and you believe that our present life is not of much importance that you will soon be at rest in the bosom of Jesus in the happy summer land of eternity, you will not be a very active worker to better earthly conditions, correct hard times, lessen poverty, stop wars, etc. Your belief will naturally, powerfully influence your actions and you will settle down and be a negative upholder of these ;

;

You will only become a citizen working hard to help better earthly conditions as your belief in the mythical Jesus and his power to save the world, lessens. In other words, the deplorable earthly conditions.

good active

you believe that Jesus can and will stretch forth his hand and save the world the more you will try to help save it, and the less you will sit down in the path of progress and obstruct the business of evolution. For instance supposing there is a nation of just ten persons. Six of you thoroughly and honestly believe that somehow, sometime, some way, Jesus will happen along and correct everything in a jiffy, what can the other four of us do to correct wrongs? Only one way; to get the majority to change their belief and quit pinning such less

IS

114

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

faith to a mythical Jesus and quit living mentally and symbolically off of the flesh and blood of that Jesus. not put your faith in the teachings of a red-

Why

blooded manly Jesus who lived like a man and died like a man and who left behind a wonderful manly philo-

sophy?

Jesus who who stand in know it. They are

It is the fool friends of

the beans.

They

are the ones

are spilling the way of

responsible progress and they do not for wars, bloodshed and disorder, and do not realize it. They refuse to spend their time studying the causes and cures for our evils. They are too self-satisfied, to smug, too selfish and too lazy to think for humanity. Their thoughts are all on a mythical Jesus and themselves. Wake up, people. Get your old dusty Bibles down and go to studying them. Ask these questions of everyone you meet why do we have wars ? why do we have hard times? why are we all continually fighting instead of helping each other? There is only one answer to all these :

Someone is trying to get something for questions. nothing or rather everybody is trying to get something for nothing and only a few succeed. All wars are caused by "business" by ambitious men whose ambition is wrongly directed. Nations trying to get ahead of each other in business matters. Trying to steal a slice of territrying to get better business deals with other nations which still other nations object to. Look at the bickerings at Washington. Nothing but the Golden Rule will ever stop it. And the Golden Rule was not advocated by any mythical Jesus. It was preached by a real full-blooded rrtan Jesus and it is the one tory,

and only panacea for our

ills.

GOD'S PLAN The Christian story of Jesus impresses me as a garbled fairy tale with too much brutality mixed with it to make anything but an unsatisfying impression on the mind while leaving a decidedly bloody horror hovering around the

soul.

me

with a disgusting, homesick feeling to and crime forever triumphant; to see innocence and helplessness always wronged and tortured, It leaves

see brutality

while brutes

kill their

own

Creator; their

God

too

weak

and silly to stay their bloody hands. It reminds me of a weak, foolish mother allowing a spoiled child to thrust a dagger into her heart and kill her, when by raising her hand she could prevent it for the best interest of her child as well as her own, but she is too sentimentally weak and idiotic to do it. Why do people admire such a godly character? Disgust and pity is all I can make out of it. I have absolutely no admiration for the hideous "fairy tale."

The character that the average Christian gives to Jesus is a weak one, whether god or man. Never defending himself when he should be the strongest. Always disappointing, always walking into trouble, torture and death. This is not human nature. The being that had this nature was not human, neither was he divine. Gods do not allow their creatures to murder them. The very

name "God" means "Master." A god who would allow men to murder him is certainly a "weak sister" as far as

gods are concerned.

How much more womanly

whose

would be for the mother, murder her, to stop the take the dagger away from it

six year old son tried to

imp, knock him over, him and send him to bed hungry.

little

We

can admire such

a mother, but we have only disgust for the would allow the kid to murder her. The same reasoning will apply to gods.

mother who

How much

IS

116

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

greater impression Jesus could have made on earth had he defied the brutes who sought to kill him, by just stopping their murder party as they were all ready to see some blood flow. A god could have played a little godly joke on Pilate, the priests, the soldiers and the multitude of brutes, and taught humanity in general not to get too fresh with a god. this wouldn't have been "God's plan." But that it was God's plan, before you accuse to me prove me of criticising "God's plan"; for I am positively not I am merely criticising what criticising God's plan. deluded Chrstians say is God's plan.

But then

do we admire Washington? Why do we admire Why do we admire Roosevelt? Simply because they did not do as Jesus is said to have done under similar circumstances. Washington did not let Benedict Arnold betray him into the hands of the British and

Why

Lincoln?

meekly allow himself to be led to the slaughtering grounds. What would we think of Washington now, had he followed the actions of the mythical Jesus and allowed himself to be killed by a firing squad or a cross?

Why

was

it

divine for Jesus, a god, to allow himself

murdered by brutal Romans and brutal Jews and why wouldn't it have been divine for Washington to have allowed himself to be murdered by the brutal British? Either Washington or the mythical Jesus was wrong. It is my judgment that the mythical Jesus should have acted as Washington did act, refuse to be murdered, but live as long as he could, and teach and lead the people all he could. Had Washington done the same as the mythical Jesus, would we have this prosperous America today? Does anyone think that Washington could have done good for humanity by falling in with, and helping to further a plot to kill himself? No one but a weakminded man or silly old women could entertain such an idea. If Washington had been in the place of the mythical Jesus he would have faught. So would Lincoln and to be

Roosevelt.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

117

Who do we admire the most, the hero who happens along at the right time and knocks the villains gaily west and aids innocence, virtue and justice to triumph, or the weakling

who

lays

down and

lets

the villains

triumph?

Why do we admire the character of the mythical Jesus? Simply because priests have warped our minds. Now do not get it into your head that I am not an admirer of the real Jesus of Nazareth. I think he was a greater man than Washington. It is a silly man-madegod Jesus that exists only in the minds of deluded Christians that I am ridiculing; the "saviour" Jesus, the "redeemer" Jesus, the "Christ" Jesus; the "god" Jesus, the Jesus that never existed other than in the minds of unthinking, silly men and women, put there by men who make a living doing it. We should drop heathen Christianity with its "Christ and cross" man-made god, and follow the God-made should turn our present man, Jesus of Nazareth. churches into Humanitarian churches and help evolu-

We

tion,

Gods

plan.

Preachers should quit being mental jailers and religious cops. They should quit trying to drive and coax people. They should feed the healthy, mental food, and They give them a chance to do their own digesting. should try and stir their minds to healthy mental action instead of forever trying to pull

them

into a rut

and

keep them there. Preachers should study and teach economic questions. It is their duty to take an intelligent interest in the week-day affairs of men and women. They should take six times as much interest in the everyday, this world affairs, as they do in Sunday, or next world affairs, because there are six times as many week days.

WHAT I KNOW ABOUT GODS Evolution is God's plan. Evolution of suns, evolution of planets, evolution of civilizations, evolution of religions, evolution of races of men and evolution of man himself. God works silently and constantly whether to develop a universe or working to develop a working tiny seed into a giant tree, a microscopic cell or germ into a man, or an uncivilized man into a civilized human being. "The mills of gods grind slow, but exceedingly fine is the grist thereof."

Religions are born, grow for a time then decline and pass away. Christianity was born, grew and ruled a good part of our earth in a tyrannical manner for a few centuries and is now on the decline and within a century or two will be only a hideous memory, at best.

Man needs religions and governments suitable to his heaven and hell particular stage of development. religion is perfectly proper for a heaven and hell man, but when that man progresses enough, the hell part can be elimanted and just the heavenly part retained. You can scare a low down, uneducated, bad man with hell, but you can't scare a highly educated moral man with any such bugaboo, to make him believe your The inparticular brand of religion or anything else. telligent man knows that he is a living record of just what he really is. He knows that every thought he ever entertained and every act he ever committed is recorded by himself, or automatically upon himself, where he himself or God can see it at a glance. He knows that he cannot erase one thought or one act

A

;

is just what he has made himself, and is making himself daily, and that he can change for the better or worse just as he pleases. He knows that it is no use trying to fool himself or his Creator. He is an open book in his own hand writing. He knows that he can be good or bad as he pleases and he knows what is

That he

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

119

good or bad, for him. He knows that if he does something bad he is sure to suffer for it sometime, somewhere and somehow. He knows it is cowardly and lazy for him to ask, expect or accept anyone else to suffer for his sins. He knows that Christianity is a deceitful, cowardly and unjust religion to try and bribe mens souls into a cruel selfishness that would profit through the murder of innocence that would degrade men's souls into the ;

horrible crime of believing that innocent blood will or

could wash

away

sin.

wash away sin but good acts. Nothing Nothing will make the bad man good except he turns from bad acts to good acts. The instant he begins to write a record of good acts in his book of life, that instant he will

begins to save himself. And if he continues to write a record of nothing but good thoughts and good acts in time the good record will so far overbalance his former bad record that the bad record will be of little consequence.

Each man judges himself and

is

his

own

redeemer.

The "redeemer"

part of Christianity is a priestly fraud and has disgraced and belittled Christianity before an intelligent world and is the cause of its downfall. Nothing saves men but education, knowledge, and science. Men learn by experience. Men learn by committing sin. They suffer the consequences of sin and thus learn

A

virtue. little experience is sufficient for some, but others require much. No one will ever get so low down that he cannot rise in time, and no one gets so high in are this world but what he can rise much higher. good to a certain extent and we are all bad to a certain extent. If this were not so the chances are that none of us would be here in this earthly school of experience.

We

It

seems

to

me

that

all

men

are

God made and

that

God's are man made. For whenever a man tries to conceive of God, the inconceivable, he simply starts in to manufacture a God. All civilizations, all religions and their gods are man-made simply man's idea of all

;

IS

120

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

what God, the unknown and unknowable, tal

man

is

concerned,

is

insofar as

mor-

or should be.

God as a magnified man sometimes distorted, sometimes purified, but always intensely human but rarely humane, with his ''chosen people ;" His friends and enemies; His likes and dislikes; His powers and weaknesses, and, in fact with every attribute of character that the human god creators have, detest or admire. And they worship through fear or love or the impossible mixture of both. The Christian god is no exception to the rule. Whenever a man begins to talk about God, His Personality or Anatomy, he begins to talk about something which he knows absolutely nothing about, and whatever he may say has reference only to man's idea of God; man's They

usually picture

;

mental image of God; man's little home-made god, and not the great Creator of all. The only way we mortals have of knowing anything whatever of the real God, is by studying His works, the only great Word of God. The broader and more enlightened we become the less we try to jam the great Creator of everything into the little mental image of God that mortals are everlastingly constructing.

There are as many different mortal minds as there are different thumb prints, as there are faces, as there are men and women. No two mortal minds are exactly No two mortal minds can see things exactly alike. alike. And the instant one mortal begins to tell another mortal about the Personality of God, that instant he begins to manufacture a god, the result is only a god model, a mental or a stone image, a picture god or a shadow god. There are millions of heathen gods and there are millions of Christian gods. When man talks about God, tries to impart to another some information regarding the characteristics and attributes of God he does not accomplish what he starts out to do do, he

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

121

tells his idea of God. It is absolutely impossible anything about God Himself. Jesus on the cross, made of gold, iron, bronze or stone, is just as much an idol as any other heathen god, carved in stone or any other material. All man-made gods are heathen gods. Christianity's man-made god is no exception. \Yords are inventions of men. Words are man made. The real unknown and unknowable God certainly does not have to stoop to use man made things. He certainly must be above using the methods of men. If this is true there could be no man-made-book, V\'ord of God. Xow this is about all I know about gods. If you just cannot get along without more information on the subjest, ask a few Christians. They are usually pretty accomodating fellows they'll tell you all they know and more too, especially about God. A man asked quite a favor of me once I granted it. He said: "are you a Christian?" I said, what do you mean by the word Christian. He said one who believes that Jesus was half-god and half-man." I said, I do not believe in half-breeds on general principles and cannot make an exception of a mythical "Christ." He was inI was disgusted. sulted. He left me without thanking me for a great favor I had granted him. I thought to

merely to tell

;

:

myself, if that fellow is a true Christian, don't have to be a Christian.

I

am

glad

I

called on me to convert me. of May. I had some very early fruit ripening and gave him a bag full to take home to his wife and little girl; I had but little of this

It

Another time a preacher was early in the month

and divided with him and his family. He stayed a couple of hours trying to bring me to his god, the mythical "Christ," and during this time he ate up all the fruit that I had given him for his wife and child; he and I had eaten some from the tree. I did not become converted. His actions spoke louder to me than his

fruit

words.

He was

thoughtless and selfish.

THOUGHT MICROBES The world

is

diseased.

It

We

is

"thought" microbes

must get after those causes the disease. microbes. Kill thought microbes and the world will get well. But in pursuing those microbes to their lair we must necessarily follow them to their old musty caves of thought in our "greatest book on earth," for in this ancient unused book many of these pesky thought microbes are strongly intrenched and their well meaning but misguided human friends will fight like enraged female tigers for their pet mental microbes, their adopted thought children. But "what is a fellow going to do" under the circumstances, beat his brains out against a stone wall of ignorance and superstition? If a person succeeds in doing anything worth while in killing these ancient mental disease microbes his reward will be an avalanch of unreasoning abuse from the unthinking adopted papa's and mama's of these criminal, mental microbes. But then let us remember what Jesus went through and that

proceed to our duty. What we may go though is nothing in comparison. "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live" is a hideous mental microbe that gave millions of ancient Christians, hydrophobia and caused them to burn at the stake and tear to pieces the living, quivering bodies of thousands of their brothers and sisters. Was this nice? Was it a nice mental microbe that caused these horrible murDoes anyone of today uphold this demoniacal ders? mental microbe. Does any papa's or mama's of today want this mental microbe for their darling pet microbe? This mental microbe has his home in the "greatest book on earth" and has caused rivers of human blood and

Exodus 22-18. Do you bad mental microbe entrenched in our Bible? Now understand the question and consider your answer, because which ever way you tears to flow, in by gone days. admit that there is just one

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

123

are condemning the "greatest book on earth," the foundation of your religion. If you answer that it is a bad mental microbe you must then stop with me long enough to explain what this bad mental microbe is doing in the "Word of God," "the greatest book on earth," the book that when opening, you always close your reason. If you admit there is just one error in a

answer you

book you have cast doubt and suspicion over it will be you, doing it, not me. There may be other dangerous mental microbes hidden therein. The fact is there are, others, many, many others, that causes million to suffer and mourn, but if one is not sufficient to illustrate my point a thousand would not perfect

Remember

it all.

be.

Now

if

you answer that "Thou shalt not suffer a is good logic, good moral teaching, you mutilation, maiming and tearing to pieces

witch to live"

approve of and burning of the living bodies of untold thousands of innocent humans. If it is not good doctrine, what is it doing in the "Word of God? Take your choice. The fact is the "greatest book on earth" lies square across our path of progress seroiusly obstructing if not actually halting God's great plan of evolution of our race and it must be moved from that path before any real peace on earth will come. Let me tell you what I think about the Bible, it need not affect what you think about it, but it will serve to help make my thought clear to you. You can investigate and prove to yourself whether I speak truth or falsehood.

The Bible is a man-made book. It was written by men, those writings were collected by men, translated by men and published by men. It is distributed by men and interpreted by men. It contains much truth, much error, much good and beautiful and much bad, obsene and filthy

that

thoughts and sayings much philosophy, much fairy tales and dreams, much that is practical and that is not practical in our day, It contains much

is

much

;

IS

124

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

that was evidently beautiful and inspiring poetry in the original manuscript, but a good part of which has been lost on translation. It contains much that is simple legend. In other words the Bible is not a book, a single book, it is fragmentary literature gathered together in one great book. It is not the Word of God, it is the words of men and some of those men were saints, while others were low degraded moral outcasts, too filthy to hold a place in a modern respectable dime novel, with many passages too vulgar and obsene for a decent man to say to a decent woman. If the "greatest book on

earth" were put in our schools and the teachers were compelled to read it through from beginning to end and explain the meaning of every word, sentence and paragraph, a majority of our school teachers who belong to Christian churches would resign rather than do it. There is not one person in a thousand that knows and realizes all that is in the Bible.

When

the Bible says in chapter 31 of

Numbers, that

God approved of Moses who commanded thirty two thousand young innocent girls to be turned over to his brutal soldiers to do with them as they pleased, and use as "white slaves," I say, at least, that such portion of the Bible is not the "Word of God." If this is criticising the Bible I plead guilty and will suffer the

them

penalty manfully, whatever it may be, and will not ask a neighbor or a saviour to suffer "vicariously" for me.

There are hundreds of instances of degredation, dishonesty and brutality being taught by our Bible. Taking the Bible for it, war is a virtue, human blood spilling laudable, stealing a virtue, white slavery a great, grand

when

by "Gods Chosen According to the Bible didn't God plan, and direct wars? If this is the case why are we foolishly trying to do away with wars? Wars must be good if God approves of them. Oh, says one, God approved of wars in the Old Testament. In the New Testament that same God does not approve of

thing,

especially

practiced

People" against their enemies.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

125

As if the great Creator was a weak horrors to be changing his mind every few centuries or rather every few minutes, as centuries are only minutes to a God. If this is the case we better look out, them. little

Oh

!

human

He may change his mind Xo telling what God may

again and upset all our plans. do. He may take a notion to make the sun shine at night instead of in the day time, then the moon would be out of a job and there would be no more love making by moonlight; for we must all admit that nothing is impossible with God. "God works

mysterious ways these wonders to perform." I really believe this myself. I believe that God could accomI believe he could plish the impossible if he wanted to. really cause Christians to think intelligently on matters pertaining to religion and the "greatest book on earth," Now let us hope and pray that He if he cared to do so. will do this. But He will first necessarily have to silence few selfish uneducated "cheeky" people who make a ?, in

living out of their religion, because, if He does not they will make so much noise that no one will be able to hear ones self think. Just pull a hungry sucking calf away from his dinner if you want to hear some bawling.

Xo\v

I

do not wish to give out the impresion that

men who make a living out of their religion are any worse or much different than us people who do not make a living out of religion. Many of them are victims of all

circumstances over which they had no control or thought they had no control. They have been placed there by These circumstances have been woven around others. them and it is a strong man indeed who can rise above his surroundings and see clear, think straight and act correct regardless of these conditions. To begin with let us take the case of one to represent the class.

There is the Christian family.

Bill

Grimes people; a

They have

young man

fine

upright

education, refinement and

some money. Mrs. Grimes is a relf-sacrificing intelligent, loving wife and mother who attends church regularly,

126

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

causes all the children to do the same and scolds Bill because he does not go to church. Bill goes whenever he can't get out of it, to please the "missus" and keep His wife gets inspiration and peace in the family. consolation out of hearing the beautiful story of Jesus related over and over, the same as one does from singing or hearing a beautiful song over and over. The church music, the well dressed people, the air of refinement and the sympathetic mental atmosphere of the church, are as necessary to Mrs Grimes and her spiritual nature as water is for a fish to swim in, or as Bill's pipe is to him. Bill is a man, a red-blooded man he can't stand as much sentiment; just a little bit, not too much, and Bill's enough is enough, alike a spiritual nature is satisfied good meal, kissing or anything else fine until you've got enough. Mrs. Grimes never gets too much of church influence and therefore she naturally thinks it is the greatest thing on earth, just the thing for young Bill who is somewhat delicate. Mrs. Grimes thinks it would be ;

;

;

grand to have young Bill study for the ministry. Bill hasn't been thoroughly halter broke and is somewhat hard to lead. Old Bill hasn't much to say. While he had rather see young Bill get out in the world and take a more strenuous part in lifes activities he is

just

Young

discreet; doesn't offer much resistance to the preacherfying plan of Mrs. Grimes as old Bill has been married some time and knows a thing or two about the persistence of women. ;

Well, young Bill enters college, takes all that is truth, graduates, comes home, gets married, secures a job leading men and women twice and three times his age, and settles down to "making a living out of his religion." Now don't blame young Bill too much for what he does. Up to the time he has settled down permanently in life he has not been taught to, yea, not even been allowed to think for himself, unless he did it with the guilty conscience of a chicken thief. He has been raised on canned thought,

handed him as absolute

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

127

mummified thought, dusty thought, thought, thoughtless thought, dead thought, Bible thought. He has been led to believe that one should not think for ones self on religious matters, that it is one of the worst After a bit, of crimes, and he has obeyed implicitly. things happen in the due course of his preaching life that causes Bill to think, really and truly think deeply, on religious matters, and such thought causes him to doubt much that was formerly taught him and which he parrot like, repeated to others. But it is too late now he cannot turn back. Bill looks at the error he has dried

;

been spreading along with some truth, he sees some physical as well as mental good that he has done and much mental harm. He then glances at a loving wife and several small Bill's looking to him for food, clothing, education, care and protection, and Bill says to himself no I cannot turn back, I must go straight ahead and be somewhat of a hypocrite. The preaching business is the only business I know. I had rather do this than to see my loved ones suffer, I can make a living at nothing else and if I dared to tell the truth as I see it, I would be kicked out of the church. I hope and pray that the end, the good I wish to accomplish, will justify the means, as well as the error and untruth I am scattering while :

doing some good.

Now

God

pity the Bill Grimes' of earth, I do my heart and pledge myself to do all I can to help bring about a state of society where they can pursue and tell the truth as they see it, and make a better living for themselves and their lovely families, out of the occupation, than they do today, while scattering error. Preachers, or "teachers" rather, are not need twice as many as we have going out of style. today, but of a better and higher grade of intelligence and education. I

say,

from the bottom of

We

I

am

viduals.

after the scalp of no individual or set of indiIt is the false system of religion, business and

government that

I

wish to change, not "tear down

;"

but

IS

128

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

gradually and tenderly "repair" and "reform" without shocking any individual or actually harming any one, or many men. Come fellows help do it, do your bit and we Look will have a better world before you realize it. yourself over, look your government over, and then do your duty as you see it. "Try all things and hold fast that which is good," simply because you intelligently believe it to be good, not because any one else believes it to be good. Base your belief on the result of your own real hard thought even as you base your business transactions on your previous mathematical thought before you act. The average man usually "figures it out" himself, before he acts in business affairs, he rarely acts on

Follow this in religious and elses "belief." Get away from the thought: governmental matters. "what was good enough for my dear Mother, or my dear Father is good enough for me. If all of us thought this, there would be no progress. We would still be using sticks for plows and stones for knives. Go up to a higher level of thought, the mental "water is fine." The fault is not so much with the Bible as it is with "you fellows,"

some one

listen to weak minded silly "sissy" men \vho sing their little song of words for the "eats" they get out of it. The fault is not with the Bible as much as it is with the "interpretation" of the Bible. Men and women

who

interpret it who do not understand it themselves and then spread their misinterpretation among unthinking people who are too busy with their noses to the grindstone of everyday life, trying to make a living for those depending on them, in an economic system that the biggest sinner against the teachings of Jesus, the man we all profess to follow, gets away with the most "swag."

The Bible draw from it

A

saint can certainly a wonderful book. inspiration for a higher and grander life, while a hardened criminal can learn new tricks to aid him in swindling people, from the same book. is

The next time you read the Bible do not take a wonpoem that has been butchered by many transla-

derful

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

129

and interpretations as well as additions and omisby former designing priests, and try to get good Such idiocy has cost the world literal sense out of it. a brave soul, many a noble person had his tongue many torn out, his eyes gouged out and then burned alive at the stake simply because he dared to think and speak rationally regarding the poems, fairy tales, dreams, myths* legends and prophecies in the Bible. The fault I say is not so much with the Bible as it is with its would be interpreters, who act as ponderous and silly as did foreigners over some of Mark Twain's jokes. Ask Christians why intellect slipped backward during the dark ages when Christianity was all powerful. They will answer: "Because the barbarians from the north overran civilization and stamped out knowledge." Let me ask: Did barbarians from the north say the world is only six; thousand years old and is flat and the sun travels around it, and is inferior to it? Or did Christians say this and burn people at the stake who tions sions

refused to believe it? Did barbarians from the north condemn the telescope as an invention of the Devil and m'ake Gallileo apologize to the Christian church for saying that our earth is slandered the name round and revolves on its axes ? of Copernicus the father of astronomy and burned Bruno at the stake for saying the world is round and proving the Old Testament to contain mistakes in astronomy, geography and morality? Was it the barbarians from the north or Christians that discourage a search after truth and knowledge? Did barbarians from the north start bloody wars between Christian sects and cause them to murder each other because of and in the name of mythical "Christ." That's right Christians, lay the blame on "barbarians," the "Devil" or any other scapegoat, while you pile your sins on the back of the "Christ." Always re-

Who

fusing to stand up like men and own sins and mistakes.

your

women and

suffer for

HELPLESS HUMANS How

helpless

we

are

when we

first

come

into this

world, more helpless than a rabbit or a kitten. And how rediculous we look; no better than a slab of beefsteak. But after we are bathed, fed, dolled up and doctored up and waited on incessantly for a few weeks we begin to show signs of beings somebody. But think of the years we are helpless and think of the trouble we cause until we are able to navigate the sea of life alone if that time ever really does come in civilized life, and then just notice the importance some of us assume even while we are so thoroughly dependent on others for the necessities of life as well as life itself. How we ride rough shod over our own kind as well as over helpless lower animals. immediately assume an importance that a God should be timid about assuming. take it for granted that all the lower animals were put here for is for us to butcher and devour. In former ages we assumed the same regarding each other. seem certain, that all other races of people; are on earth for, is just to be our slaves, that all the unfortunate of our own race is here This is the common heart for, is to be our servants. attitude of the average Christian man. ;

We

We

We

fall

But just let some little thing out of the ordinary, besome of us big, strong men a sprained ankle, a tap ;

on the head, a pain in the liver, or some trivial accident and how quick we are helpless, down floundering in the dust, needing help and pathetically looking for it from those whom a few moments before we were lording it over in a haughty manner; now pleading for sympathy and tender care that we probably do not deserve; expecting to be carried home and tucked away in a nice bed and be waited on like an infant. And finally death comes and takes us where? Oh why didn't we be more humble, more humane, more patient, more noble like Jesus, while we had a chance? But we or he or she, did

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

131

The great tomorrow has not, and it is too late now. come, and we have gone where we will not do any more lording it over those that circumstances placed in our temporary power but others, probably greater tyrants, take our places and the mad game of earthly life goes ;

merrily on.

We

But let us see, who are we anyway? were cerare here aren't we? Are we not a tainly created. certainly didn't living proof that we were created? If it is admitted that we were "created," "jes grow." there must be a Creator somewhere and if that is the case we must belong to our Creator instead of belonging to ourselves or to each other. If we have a Creator and belong to a Creator we certainly owe something to that Creator. That Creator must certainly have had a pur-

We

We ;

in view when he created us. If we have a Creator our duty to serve Him instead of serving our selfish We are evidently here to help our Creator and selves. not to hinder Him. He evidntly is working out some plan and we may play a vital part in it. Now it seems to me that our duty is to try and get en rapport with our Creator and help Him all we can. We do not know where we came from, where we are going or just why we are here, unless we are here to help our Creator and the only practical way that I can see that we can help Him is for each of us to aid those below us to climb higher in intelligence and morality. Some moral, intelligent, loving people do not need a saviour to tell them this, they naturally know it; this knowledge is a part of their very selves. Helping God's Creatures must help God. Then let us all get in and help build a better world with no wars, no poverty, and as little sin and sorrow as possible and surprise our Creator. It can be done. Nothing but ignorance and selfishness stands in the way. Let us all Join a Humantarian Church and get busy. Let us all be "home" patriotic first and then "world" patriotic afterwards, adopting the motto: The world is

pose it is

132

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

church, to aid others my religion. Let us be Americans in local affairs only. Let us be World Citizens in all matters pertaining to other nations and look at the other fellows side of all questions. Follow the Golden Rule as near as we can in all earthly dealings. It should not be necessary to start any new church A "buildings," to belong to a Humanitarian Church. word to the wise should be sufficient, but will it be?

my

What a grand thing it would be for our government to say to the foreign nations that owe us such immense sums of money: "The American Nation expects its will creditors 'to do as they wish to be done by'."

We

expect every dollar you owe us but without interest." This would be honest and fair to all and would cause the world to think on this question. The little dishonest interest we would lose would be more than offset by the

moral gold we would gain. But it is probably expecting much to ask one Christian government to follow the Golden Rule in dealing with other Christian governments. If the leaders of America were real leaders they would do this as well as many other things that should be done to start the world to thinking correctly. America could lead the world to universal peace and happiness if she had a leader or two worthy of the name. too

1

TWO

KINDS OF CHRISTIANITY

There are two kinds of Christianity. The kind that Jesus taught and other kind, the kind that most of our present Christian churches teach. I will call the former,

We Christianity, and the latter heathen Christianity. have a few churches, thanks to a few broad minded, religiously sane preachers, in which real Christianity is explained and enlarged on. But a majority ot our Christian preachers, preach heathen Christianity. Jesus of Nazareth Christianity is: The Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of man, a soul with a future life and the Golden Rule. It was taught centuries before Jesus was born. If not all in one religion, in various It never was taught as well as Jesus taught religions. it. But Guatama taught it, the practical part of it, most of it, and so did Confucius and many other great men. Of course these men all taught a great many things that were not so good, also, if we are to believe history. But this does not lessen the value of the things they taught that we know to be good. They certainly taught the practical part of true religion and that is sufficient, If we follow their teachings we will be properous and happy.

We

must have a new church movement on earth, either inside or outside of our present churches, to carry on good work started by Guatama, Confucius and Jesus of Nazareth and we may need a new name to symbolize that new church work. The name Christianity has been ;

disgraced by hypocritical priests who attached the "fall of man" drivel, the "immaculate conception" slander, the "son of God" babble and the holy murder on the cross teachings to Christianity, to bolster up the lazy, cowardly "vicarious atonement." dishonesty. None of which was ever taught by Jesus, This religious thought with the exception of the "fall of man," was written into the Bible over a century after the death of Jesus of Nazareth.

IS

134

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

This can be proven in any unbiased court in the world. Any one can prove this to his or her own satisfaction by just reading- and studying the Bible itself. I mean reading intelligently by a fair minded average person. I am not referring to people who make a living out of their religion or people who would be considered below par in reason, taking the average inmate of our lunatic asylums as the standard. I am refering to intelligent fair minded people who are not satisfied with present earthly conditions and would like to see a better earth life.

Dishonest priests have had these horrible things we hug them to our breasts, thinking we will get a free ride into heaven by doing so. written in our Bible and

The

Christian takes the cross, symbol of the foulest No greater sacrilege or earth, and kisses it. mental crime against Jesus or God Almighty could be committed. This is worshiping an, idol, a stone "cross" show by our actions that we are glad Jesus god. was murdered by those ancient devils excuse ourselves by thinking "it is the will of God." Be careful there, we have no right to think it is the "will of God." All the proof we have is what ancient priests wrote in the Bible over a hundred years after the death of Jesus,

murder on

We

We

priests tell us; priests who make an selling soul things, heavenly things, should be careful what we think.

and what modern earthly living by religion.

We

Christianity purified, will be the grandest religion of earth. All it will contain will be what Jesus taught, the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of man, future life of the soul and the Golden Rule. Not one thing

more.

Just these things logically enlarged, explained

and placed in the concrete adapted to every day life. The whole world can rally to this religious standard and will rally to it under the name of Humanitarian, or a better name, and not under the name of Christian," unless our present churches clear the name "Christianity" of slander; because the horrid, ignorant superstitious, ;

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

135

dishonest priests and preachers have disgraced the name for nearly two thousand years and have caused millions of intelligent moral people of earth to suffer untold torture, because they dared to disbelieve the men who made a living out of the supposedly sacred thing, heathen religion,

which they called Christianity.

clear the name by throwing overboard the heathen part of Christianity, but will they do it? I do not think so, but hope so.

Our present churches can

Priests caused Gallileo to be persecuted because he Priests caused Bruno to be said "the world is round." burned alive because he said so too, and because he did not believe what they told him to believe, and they did it in the name of Jesus and Christianity. Priests and preachers caused hundreds of delicate moral women to be burned alive as witches. Now do not say that it was the people, not the priests. I say it was the ancient priests who alone were to blame for these horrible outrages against thinking humanity. They taught the people and generated the thought that caused Priests caused those murderers to kill their betters.

the multitude to demand the death of Jesus. ways acted as judges at all the mock trials.

Priests al-

did priests do it? Because they made a good it. Just take the living out of the priest business in any age and the priest business will go the way of our late saloon business; the way our present banking business will go when the common people of earth wake up.

Why

living out of

The name "Christian" has been

too long disgraced preachers to ever be able to command the respect of the intelligent thinking, scientific people of earth. The very mention of the name "Christian" to a thinking person who is familiar with history, causes a shudder. He thinks of the murders, massacre's, wars,

by

and

He

priests

and

injustice practiced by Christians in the name of Jesusthinks of the average blind faith of the heathen

IS

136

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

Christian kissing an image of the instrument with which Jesus was murdered. Think of kissing an image of the sword with which your dear mother was murdered, because you gained a benefit from it, because all of her property was left to you children, and then justify yourself with the thought that it was the will of God or that it was "God's plan" so you children could get the money to live happy on ever after; so you children could go to an earthly heaven !

The lawyer

(the preacher)

you

retained to settle the

estate for a fat fee, could comfort you by assuring you that it was anciently written in the great law books of ancient times by solemn faced lawyers who made a living out of the lawyer business and therefore wished to make business good for lawyers, that such was God's plan of salvation for his "chosen" children, that it is

"Gods Word."

The lawyer

could

tell

you

this

hideous

"fairy" tale once a week for your natural life time and you could afford to tell your conscience and reason to

"shut up" and not bother you while your lawyer was you just what your lazy cowardly, hypocritical self wanted to hear; how to enjoy heaven at some ones elses expense at the expense of your murdered mother or Jesus or just any body so you did not have to do any of the suffering other than shed an alligator tear or two

telling

;

now and I am

then.

not criticising religion.

am

I

am

not making fun

just telling you something that you should be told for your own good as well as for the good of millions like you. You have got in a rut. You were placed in a rut when you were young and your mind was plastic and it will take a pretty hard jolt to get you out of it. You have played the religious "run sheep run" so long that whenever your herders, the preachers, game holler "run sheep run" you all scurry for the shadow of the cross and the blood of Jesus to protect you from the reason "wolf" that your religious herders fear so much.

of you.

I

Now

all

you heathen, "run sheep run" Christians get

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

137

ready to run when you read writings on religion because your religious and financial herders will sure yell at you when any writings on religion or "money changers" I know something about priests and bankers appear. and am going to tell it or die trying to. They cannot stop me from telling it, but they can herd you into a pool of symbolical, innocent human blood under the shadow of the image of the instrument of torture that produced the actual innocent human blood shed by Jesus of Nazareth. I

do not admire the guillotine.

I

would not

kiss

it

The cross and the guillotine are me. to same the They belong to the same family. exactly The cross is an ancestor of the guillotine. They are both or

bow down

before

it.

instruments of murder ;only the cross happened to murder a more harmeless more innocent and greater man than the guillotine ever did. But this is not a good reason for the cross turning up its nose at the guillotine and refusing to speak as they pass by. Looking at it from a moral standpoint the guillotine is more respectable, more refined and more merciful than the cross. The cross was a cruel agonizing, long drawn out tormenter; some times for days. The guillotine puts it's victims out of misery at once. Let heathen Christianity take the guillotine to represent its faith it is more refined. It can furnish more blood on shorter notice to drink and wash Christians whiter than snow in. ;

If Jesus had been killed by guillotine or a scaffold heathen Christians of to-day would be kissing a minature guillotine or scaffold and be wearing them around their necks or in their noses or ears. Heathen Christians will do anything but think rationally on religion. Many modern heathen Christians will want to murder me for telling them a few things that they need to be told. But I advise these Christians not to do it, as it will immortalize me and future heathen Christians will be kissing Dont the electric chair because I was murdered in it. do it my heathen Christian friends. Dont do it. While

all

138

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

you would be doing me a great favor, as I would "kind-a" the like to see how it seems to be immortalized, still electric chair might hurt me some and then see how many future back aches you would cause future Christian heathens bowing and mumbling before an image of the electric chair I was murdered in. And just think of the perfectly good spit that would be wasted by kissing the electric chair. And look at the future gator tears that would be shed for me.

alli-

Your tears would not do me any good alter I was murdered and I'd "sorta" hate to have you drinking my blood and taking a bath in it too, or eating my flesh I might need that blood and flesh "when I am ressurrected" as the heathen Christian remarked.

Now really Christians, what difference is there between you worshiping a stone cross and a heathen worshiping a stone god? The only difference I can see, is that you are worshiping an image of something that you know all about, murder and blood, while the heathen is worshiping an image of something he knows nothing about, the unknown God, the Creator of us all. For my part I think the heathen is the most rational and humane. If you ever want to make me feel sorry for myself just call me a Christian. I am not a Christian and you calling me one will not make it so. I am a Humanitarian. I belong to the Humanitarian Church. The Church of Common Sense. The world is my church, to aid others my religion. Yes I,m bad and I know it. You'r bad and you dont know it. I am just a little further along than you are when I admit it. The trouble with you Christians is that you are so terribly conceited. You tell your little murder story and if others do not believe it you call them heathens and think yourselves above them when the real fact of the matter is, you are way below them in intellect even though you are above them in audacity. You brag around continually that Christianity caused all the great discoveries and made all the great inventions. A bigger fib was never uttered. All the great

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

139

discoveries that Christianity ever made, is that the world is flat; that the sun is inferior to the earth and revolves around it; that the stars are lanterns hung in the sky every night by Gods' angels that this earth is the center that of, and the most important thing in the universe this earth is only six thousand years old; that a certain Mr. Joshua could and did throw a monkey wrench in the machinery of our universe and caused the little old insignificant sun of ours to stand still, stay put, until said Joshua said "beat it sun, beat it." And for why? So ;

;

Joshua could finish slaughtering people. The days were not long enough for war in juggler Joshua's time, so God just let him order the sun, moon and stars around as he saw fit. Christians made this grand discovery. No other book on earth, other then the Christian "books of books" records this great discovery, the discovery that a man of earth can order the planets around to suit his desires. Oh, I tell you heathen Christianity is a great thing when

one becomes really acquainted with

it.

"Thou

shalt not sufhere is a really great and grand discovery. Had not the hundreds of thousand witches been killed and tortured, where would We be to-day? Now just think of it, where would we be? Do you suppose we would have a phonograph, a steam engine or a flying machine ? Give Christianity the credit for all these things because they did not suffer a witch to live for fifteen hundred years, Christians were the persistent brave fellows though?

Christianity also discovered that

fer a

witch to

live."

Now

Another great discovery made by Christianity was the instruments of torture to compel people to believe in Christianity; the fear of which caused Gallileo to get down on his knees and beg pardon of the Pope for insulting Christianity by saying the world is round. Just think of it, in olden times it was an insult to Christianity, punishable with death, to say that the world is round. Christianity was a great discoverer. It discovered that the world was flat and it would and did kill any one who

IS

140

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

disputed Christianity. And how did it do the killing? it tore out the tongue by It tore them limb from limb the roots, that denied the world to be flat, and it gouged out the eyes which saw the world to be round, and it burned alive any one who dared to oppose Christianity or its great "discoveries," that were untrue. So much ;

for Christianity as a discoverer.

Now let us see what Christianity invented. Did Christianity invent the telescope, the microscope and other great scientific inventions? You know what Christianity did to Gallileo, how he was persecuted, insulted and made to call his invention, the telescope, the work of the devil. Christianity did a lot to invent the teledid Chrisscope and bring it into use, didn't it? tianity fight Gallileo so hard? because he opposed ChrisChristianity tianity in its untruth and false doctrine. Gallileo said "it is round," said the world was flat.

Why

Christianity

was strong and over

who opposed it. any one who tells the

thing or any one

want

to kill

rode,

rough shod, any-

Why

will Christians truth about it?

Christianity says the earth is only about six thousand man was put here perfect, and fell Darwin and geologists have proven beyond a doubt that our earth is millions of years old and that men evolved, that there was no "fall of man" as the Christians Bible tells about. What did Christianity do to Darwin and other scientists? It slandered and persecuted them all it dared.

years old, that

The fact is, Christianity has slandered and persecuted every scientist of note who made great discoveries that proved Christianity to be false. It is true that a few of these great men were Christians or were supposed to be Christians, but it was not their Christianity that caused them to discover and invent things that proved Christianity to be a lie. Most of our great inventors were professed nonChristians and Christianity faught them and their inventions or theories. Look over history and see what a

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

141

struggle Chemistry had, developing against the opposition of Christianity. The fact of the matter

is, that heathen Christianity an invention, a priestly, religious invention, invented in the dark ages of the world, when men were grossly ignorant by men who crystallized their ignorance and called it Christianity.

itself, is

;

Heathen Christianity is a disgrace to the world. It professes to be an angel and is a very demon. Heathen Christianity is responsible for the horrible condition of our earth to-day. If you want better conditions reform Christianity or get rid of it altogether. Start something new. The name of Christianity is disgraced before both God and man. Take the best of Christianity and add to it by explanation if it cannot be added to in any other way and discard forever the old worn out rotten part of it, the heathen part and climb heaven ward in fact, as well as in theory. can you Christians be happy with all this suffering and crime on earth? You, more than any one else are helping to produce it. You, at You least, are doing nothing* to remove the causes of it. do not know what the causes are, because you spend too much time on your silly "Jesus save me," wail. For heaven sakes forget your little old selfish selves for a while and do what Jesus told you to do go to work for those below you. If you want the same old conditions on earth, just keep up the same old silly thought and actions and you will have the same old, or worse conditions. Jesus is not going to take the trouble to come back and save you, you are not worth saving when you pose as a silly image of a jealous, brutal, selfish, blood

How

;

scattering god. Wake up One of the greatest stumbling blocks to progress is the good but unthinking Christians. They are in the great majority, that is speaking of Christians especially, (most Christians are certainly honest and mean well) and nothing worth while can be accomplished with out the consent or cooperation of the majority. Just being honest !

142

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

and meaning well never makes the world progress, something else is needed. For instance I knew a lady once, who was a leader in a church, a leader in a Sunday School, a leader in the :

town, a leader in every thing in the community that was good, refined, benevolent and big hearted. No children went hungry and ragged if she knew it. No sick or crippled child went without the tenderest care if she knew of such child. No grown person either, for that matter. This Christian lady made me dig up a few pennies occasionally to aid such cases, that I would not have aided, had it not been for her natural kind heartedness. But when it came to religious matters, religious thought, this lady was a three year old girl only. She could no more reason on religious matters than a fish could reason on dry land. She would flop all over the beach of religious facts and manage to get back into the stagnant pool of religious thought in less time than it takes to tell it. She was usually right on every thing but her religion. Because she could reason on anything but religion, and she had fine reasoning powers. She told me one day that she believed the Bible to be the "Word of God," that she loved every work in the Bible, that Christianity was the religion of her dear mother and she would never go back on it. There you have it. She would not allow the suggestion to be made that possibly her mother was mistaken. No, the woman was too loyal to her mother to do this. That is why she would not and could not reason on religious matters. Now it is such people as these, the people who do the most every day good in the world, that unknowingly hold the world back and keep us from progressing to a higher and better civilization. They prevent necessary changes in fundamental methods that would aid present

and future improvements

in religion, in

governments and

business or economics. They block progress and cause the world to stand still and suffer more than they dream in

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

143

is misplaced. Their judgment is poor. are loyal to their mothers who may have been mistaken. They are loyal to their church that might be mistaken. They are loyal to their preacher who makes religion a business proposition. They "think" they are loyal to Jesus but they are unknowingly traitors to him. If they would only read their Bibles and study them But they will not do intelligently they would see this. it. The preachers teach them that to reason is to doubt, and that hell is paved with skulls of doubters.

of.

Their loyality

They

Christianity takes the benefit of the unselfish every-

day goodness of such people. Christianity says: See how good I made that woman? It is a lie; Christianity did not make that woman good. She was born good. She was good in spite of Christianity and would have been better, more intelligent and able to do more good in the world had Christianity not filled her head so full of blood, murder and priestly ideas. She would have been just as good if she had been born under the Chinese religion, perhaps better. Christianity did not do anything for her but warp her mind and contract her soul. Spoiling her grand mentality by filling it full of hideous, Chrisimpossible and "divinely" immoral fairy tales. tianity

harmed

This

this

woman.

woman and

thousands

like her,

does

much

for

They keep

Christianity alive, they keep the dead clamy thing on earth centuries after its spirit has fled, leaving nothing but it's form, even as a mother will clasp her dead babe to her breast until long after mortification has set in. Christianity.

If it

wasn't for the loyality of such grand, motherly

women as this, Christianity would perish from the earth and we would have a better religion, a Jesus of .Nazareth religion, which would usher in a better civilization until these women are reached and educated no

and one

need to look for better earthly conditions. The hope of the world lies with the heart of the world and all we need is educated hearts as well as educated

IS

144

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

The women have a monoply on the world's heart and when they can be made to realize that they, at

brains.

present, not only stand in the way of progress, but can actually build a better world themselves, there will be something doing. The men will never do it alone. They or the most of them are too busy making a living out of their religion and their business, to think or care much more than a day ahead of their time. The height of too many men's ambition is a little home brew, a

cigaret with an flesh to eat.

occassional

hunk

of quivering animal

Now how How

can you expect any better conditions on can you expect anything but hard times, strikes, riots, bread lines, wars and rumors of wars, with unemployment, sickness, sorrow and premature death. earth?

Go to it people should worry. Christianity

if

you

are

grew out

happy

I

don't

of spiritualism.

full of spiritualism and spiritualism is a to bother with. It is like fire, liable to

know why The

Bible

I

is

dangerous thing do more damage

than good.

Sure it is. So is dynamite a do not exeperiment with either. my I know something about both. Keep just as far from both as you can and you will live longer and happier. While it might be safe for a Sir Oliver Lodge to experiment with either, the average man or woman had better let both alone. Do not try to comprehend the unknowable. Do not try to comprehend God, for he who does will die trying. He will never do it, this side of death. Just "believe" Do not waste any time in a God and let it go at that. trying to "know" anything about God, other than studying God's works, His creations. If you cannot believe in any God or any religion, be honest with yourself and do not try to do it. While I believe in a God, I admire the man or woman who does not believe in a God, and is Is spiritualism a fact?

fact,

but take

not afraid to say

advise,

so.

The God

I

believe in will think

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

145

much of such man or woman as He does of me, other things being equal. What we "believe" regarding God does not help or injure Him. It is the way we act towards God's creatures that counts. just as

and designing priests use the name of religion as instruments to enslave the people and get a portion of what the people produce by hard work without paying the people anything for their products. They get up pious frauds to fool the people with, a good deal like we fool the children with Santa Clause Selfish rulers

God and

and other fairy tales. For instance Christmas and Easter were celebrated thousands years before Jesus of Nazareth was born. These holidays were ancient feast days. They were a Christmas was the bepart of ancient Sun worship. ginning of the new year, because the Sun had started to gain mastery again because the days had started to get longer, everybody rejoiced and celebrated, Which was right and proper. Easter was celebraed because the Sun had gained in it's battle over the night; the days were beginning to become longer than the nights. Spring had come. It was the resurrection of life, of all life, what an inspiring, ;

glorious occasion The grass came, the buds burst, the flowers bloomed, the birds sang and built nests. All animal and vegetable life was renewed and man felt the invigorating influence of spring, the annual resurrection of life, all life, after a long period of inaction. The bursting into life of the apparently dead twig or seed; the bud, the blossm, the fruit. The resurrection of all life, not just the resurrection of one man. This naturally called for a celebration. Christianity appropriated these age old feast days of pagan religions, and priests claimed that Jesus was born on one of these days and resurrected on the other. Of course no one can prove whether Jesus was or was not born on one of these days and resurrected on the other. But whether he was or not, is not important. These !

IS

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CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

days were celebrated centuries before, and will always be celebrated for the same reasons they were first celebrated.

Christianity borrowed

it's religion or the main part from Moses. Moses borrowed the main part of his The Egyptians borrowed religion from the Egyptians. their religion from the Hindus. And J don't know where the Hindus got their religion and do not care. Each one of these religions started out with some truth and collected all the filthy error that could stick

of

it,

to them until they contained more error than truth until they were all form and no spirit, when they gradually ;

passed away, even as Christianity is passing away in our day. The sacred books of Egypt, where Moses was born

taught most everything that Christianity somewhat cruder form such as the "one God" above all others a future life and future judgment; a morality of justice and mercy; the Egyptians put much stress on the doctrine of a future life.

and

raised,

teaches, though in a

;

;

Most of these ancient religions had their "virgin mother of God;,, their "Christ leaders or saviours" and their "miraculous births and deaths." There is absolutly nothing in Christianity that was not taught by "heathen" religions centuries before Jesus

was born. Christianity is full of supertition and its prayer is a wail addressed to a god who caused his own son to be treacherously betrayed and brutally murdered, asking the god to grant a benefit to the human through Priests and preachers are not cold blooded murder. wholly to blame for this state of affairs. Nine tenths of them know better, and would teach better if the people would allow it. They should be teachers and leaders of live thought, instead of preachers of a dead selfish

religion.

The man who spends

working with may observe and

his valuable time

a microscope or telescope

that he

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

147

new fact in nature that will aid or instruct aid in the cure or prevention of disease

record some

mankind

;

;

instruction regarding weather conditions that may injure or increase crops, and who usually works without salary, is a better servant of God than the average preacher who with sanctimoneous face tells other people what they must do to go to heaven and what they must not do or go to hell, and for which telling he receives a regular pay envelope doing most of his work on the Sabbath that he would send other people to jail for working on. In order to believe in and follow Jesus a preaceher should be a Jesus to his congregation, but few of them are they are only star boarders who never really pay their board. ;

;

One of the greatest errors of Christianity is the assertion that no one dare approach his Creator, personally that we all must come through a third party, a Jesus, a

;

pope or a church. This is silly and unjust. The idea was invented by priests. The kind of priests that Jesus fought. The kind of priests that demanded and caused the horrible death of Jesus. Selfishness and hypocritical greed are the parents of this idea. The priests fix it so it takes money to get salvation. They evidently need the money.

To

say that an innocent babe could not go direct to aid of a "saviour" of some thousands ancestor that because an babe, simply of years before it's birth, had committed a sin, is a crime against humanity. And to say that God or Jesus said so, is a worse crime against! God and Jesus. It is hard for me to believe that any sane, thinking man can believe this unless taught it in early childhood, and it is not fair to childhood to teach such unjust ideas it's

Heavenly Father without the

to trusting children. It is a Christian theory that

God

created

man

perfect,

That God became anman and drove man on curse a and pronounced gry from Him. That man went from bad to worse and God the

man was tempted and

in his effort to teach

man

"fell."

a lesson, destroyed the

human

IS

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CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

race by a flood saving one family only. That this did not help matters. Then God wishing to coax man back to Him, He formulated what Christians call the "Great Scheme of Salvation," which included the sending of God's only son to earth to be immorally born and ignobly die, after leading a sorrowful life among traitors and

demons. That God did the planning, man did the murdering, and Jesus furnished the blood to wash away the sins of Christians and make them whiter than snow, so said Christians could face God again without getting stage fright or feeling nervous.

one but Jesus. The Jews had god had fun planning and selfish thoughtless heathen Christians have lots of fun going to heaven via the lazy, cowardly, blood spilling route and why should I object? Well, for instnace, I have been asked several times And I have always if I was a Christian and if not, why? show me a little proof of your god-made, answered blood spilling plan, that our courts would accept as real evidence and I will talk it over with you you have no authority other than the Bible and why should we believe the Bible? "Because it is the word of God, it says so itself." A dime novel might say the same thing. Few men or women have desire or ability to think much or deeply and reason correctly, hence the tendency to mentally lean on ready made thought and precedent;

Grand scheme

for every

fun spilling blood. the blood spilling,

A man-made

:

;

Stare Decisis.

The religion, the politics, the business methods of the father or mother of the average man or women seems to be good enough for them. The average man or woman would rather be loyal to custom than to be thoughtful. The first law of human nature is self-preservation. The second law is the tendency of man to gratify his desires with the least amount of exertion. The average person will not climb a tree for oranges when he is sure he can obtain just as good oranges without climbing for them. Under these circumstances, if he does climb the

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

149

it will be more for a desire for adventure than a desire for the best oranges. Man is naturally a religious creature and must have a religion of some sort, and the religion he usually gets is the one that comes the easiest, conies like his language comes to him, from his mother's lips while sitting on her knees the one who taught him before he was able to think for himself. The one who taught him before he was able to analyze or question, who taught the thought that to question was to be cast into hell. All "revealed" religions teach this punishment idea more or less, but

tree

;

none more forcibly than heathen Christianity: "There shall be weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth." "Depart ye into everlasting punishment." "Believe or be damned." Great language for a "Prince of Peace" to be using? Beautiful telligent

isn't it. Suppose you are honest and inand just cannot believe the bloody thing called

heathen Christianity?

Heathen Christianity lives to-day because designing know the weakness of human nature and warp the minds of the young so they may live an easy gentlemanly life, fattening on the blood and tears of humanity, and because the people approve of it and wish the priests to stunt the minds of our young. Every red-blooded intelligent priest knows that he is grafter. A few weak minded ones do not know it. Read below what Andrew D. White has to say about Christianity. Mr. White was once President of Cornell University. He was also Ambassador to Germany. "It threatened doom in this life and the next against investigators on new lines. It forbid the world to seek any new methods and to follow any new paths which thinking men might find. It claimed that all knowledge is in the Bible, and that anyone who dared to suggest any knowledge not in the Bible was a heathen and death was too good for him. It tried by the torture chamber and death sentence to create a disrespect for, and fear of

priests

IS

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CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

scientific pursuits. It condemned the study of science by observation, comparison and experiments. It con-

sidered physical investigations as an impious intrusion into the work of God."

"The establishment of Christianity arrested the normal development of the physical sciences for over fifteen hundred years. The cause of this arrest was two-fold first, there was created an atmosphere in which the germs of physical science could hardly grow, an atmosphere in which, all seeking in Nature for truth as :

truth,

was regarded

as futile.

The general

belief

de-

from the New Testament Scriptures was, the thought that the end of the world was at hand that the last judgment was approaching; that all existing physical rived

;

nature was soon to be destroyed hence, the greatest thinkers in the church generally poured contempt upon all investigators into a science of nature, and insisted that everything except the saving of souls was folly." Now just see what Christianity has done for science. Christianity for fifteen hundred years looked on science as an unwelcome batch of kittens and tried to drown them, but as usual the cats got home first. Astronomy, Biology, Geology and Chemistry were some of the cats. :

Say people, you should read Andrew D. White on Get his books at the public library and read religion, them.

The is giving it's last kicks. house to house and of days making special appointing drives, the holding of emotional, saw dust meetings to get new mentally lame converts and a little money inciHeathen Christianity

dentally, are straws telling

which way the religious wind

blowing. Los Angeles records 59 religions and less than one half of the people belonging to churches. The is

majority will have none of it. Can a person be a Christian and be a business man, a policeman, etc? Sure he can, he can even be a robber, white slaver and a murderer and still be a first class heathen Christian. All he has to do when he gets weary

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

151

committing crime is to call a priest, confess, pay the priest and ride into heaven over a smooth boulevard, paved with human crime, human flesh and human blood with a cross every now and then to tell him that he is on the right road. I give below some Bible references that I dare any Christian; Sunday school teacher, to read and explain to their classes. That I dare any Christian father to read to That I dare any preacher or priest to his grown girls. read and explain to the people who say that they believe every word of the Bible to be the "Word of God." I could give a hundred times as many.

am

not criticising the Bible I am criticising the silly people who think the Bible to be the Word of God. Lok at Genesis, chapter 38 paragraph 9. Talk about moving pictures being immoral! Just read this whole chapter. Should this nastiness be in the "Word of God?*' Gracious^ people what kind of red light district writing of what kind of a god, is this, to be the Word of God if it is not a man made heathen god? Ask some one who knows what the words "in unto" and "seed," mean as well as other strange words to you, and then go off somewhere and blush for the Christian "Word of God," and while you are blushing just read what James Freeman Clarke, a Jesus of Nazareth Christian, and an authority on all religions, has to say on page 61 of his review I

!

;

of all religions.

"The sacred

literature of the Chinese is perfectly free

from everything impure or offensive. There is not a line but might be read in any family circle in England." How does this compare with Chapter 38 of Genesis the Christian "Word of God?" We have always been taught to despise the Chinese as heathens. The Chinese of God" has no red light literature in it. Who are the biggest heathens us or the Chinese? See chapter 12, paragraph 10, Genesis. See what a cowardly schemer the father of "God's Chosen People" was. A nice manly fellow to start a chosen people with

"Word

!

IS

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CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

Also, see chapter 16 of Genesis, to find out what manwoman was the wife of the father of "God's

ner of

Chosen People."

They connived between themselves

make

a white slave of their hired girl and after the man of the house gets the maid in trouble and she can no longer "serve" him they kick her into the street because the woman of the house got jealous after making Read this and think it the indecent proposal herself. over carefully, and see if you can find any morality, any to

honesty, any refinement or any decency in it, remembering all the time that it is a part of the Christian

"Word You

of God."

say: "Oh, that is in the old Testament; that has been done away with." Then why is the Old Testament printed and carefully preserved and carried down through the centuries as a part of the "Word of God?" Why is not the rotten old thing burnt up if it is superceded by by the New Testament? I'll tell you why. The priests cannot get along without it. They cannot make a living without it. The "fall of man" is in the Old Testament. They cannot get along without this theory to bolster up their "saviour" theory. The saviour theory was predicted by priests in the Old Testament and fulfilled by priests in the New Testament. The whole thing is a silly bungling plot. Some of all

the predictions in the old Testament were translated to appear as being fulfilled in the New Testament. All done by priests of course. Some honest but idiotic, and some dishonest and foxy. If there had been no "fall of man" in the Old Testament there could be no "saviour" of men in the New

Testament. There would have been no need of any. He would have been a useless piece of furniture. Destroy the Old Testament and heathen Christianity falls in pieces. This is why priests hug the Old Testament and preserve it. So do not use the excuse that "it is in the Old Testament." Be game. The Old Testament is one

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

of our religious ancestors

disown

it

when we

153

and we should not try

to

are cornered.

Read Genesis chapter 19, paragraph 8; a Mr. Lot, one of "God's Chosen People," offers to give his two innocent daughters to a howling mob, for the mob to do what it cared to with them, the father virtually suggests making white slaves out of them, if the vicious mob would just go away and not harm Mr. Lot or his men friends. Can you beat it? What business has this kind The Chinese of trash doing in the "Word of God?" wouldn't stand for it but we do. Now just take a peak} at paragraph 32 of same book and chapter last quoted and see what fine daughters this man Lot had. Weren't they peaches? What is this, worse than red light district stuff, doing in the "Word of God?"

You

Christian Sunday school teachers read this to classes next Sunday. It is a part of your "Word your of God" and you should study and teach it. writings will nearly shock you to death but how about some portions of the "Book of Books?"

My

;

am

not criticising you or your religion just now. simply introducing your religion to you. The trouble is that you know nothing at all about your own religion. The more you know about it the less you will I

I

am

1

believe in

it.

Outside of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of man using the Golden Rule, and the doctrine of a soul and a future life Christianity is mostly a rotten mess that must be cleaned up and I intend to help all I

can.

See Numbers, chapter 31 verses 13 to 35. Beautiful thoughts. Exodus, chapter 29 paragraph 10 to 21. How inspiring. Exodus, chapter 31 paragraph 14 and 15. This is certainly encouraging. Exodus, chapter 22 paragraph 18. Be careful girls and don't doll up too much and make yourselves too bewitching. Exodus, chapter 3 paragraph 22; chapter 11 paragraph 2, also chapter 12 paragraph 35 and 36. The heathen Christian god taught

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE r

IS

154

stealing in the Old Testament, but they say he has reformed in the New Testament. Good, even a god then is not above a little reforming now and then. Exodus, chapter 34 paragraph 14, a narrow minded jealous god. Exodus, chapter 21 paragraph 6. The heathen Christian god teaches and approves of human slavery. Abraham Lincoln knew more than such a god. Exodus, Exodus, chapter 24, chapter 29, paragraphs 10 to 21 paragraph 6 to 8. Moses was the boy that could sprinkle ;

blood for you.

For tricky members of "God's Chosen People" see Genesis, chapter 30, paragraph 30; shows you what a "foxy grandpa," Father Jacob was. Of course Laban had cheated him, but one crime does not make another crime a virtue. Also Jacob's trick on Esau, Genesis, all an angel of the Christian god advises of chapter 31 crime Genesis, chapter 34, trickery and to commit Jacob brutality of Jacob's sons "Chosen People of God." ;

;

;

would take pages

to record the instances of crime indecency recorded in the Christian "Word of God."

It

and Things that the average person does not know about. We must discard all this indecency and record of crimWe must destroy it and have a new interpreinality. tation of Christianity under a new name. We must discard this "Jesus save me" wail. Pure thoughts, good deeds, hard work, with some prayerful contemplation will in time save anybody. Nothing else will. Purified Christianity; the Fatherhood of God, the Brotherhood of man, the doctrine of a soul and future life and the Golden Rule will bring heaven on earth. But how the ignorant, superstitious, weak minded will fight for the old order of things.

Of course preachers will be indignant at the assertion that they are in the preaching business for any other reason than that they are "serving the Lord," that they are merely answering the "call of the Lord." But just the same most of them usually hear the "call" that

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

155

promises the most salary and easiest time, the nicest churches and the richest congregations. Some say: "If the Bible is not the "Word of God" why has it lived and attracted the attention of men for so

many

centuries?"

Because of the good that is in it. But that is no why people should devour the mental trash also that is there. Another reason for the Bible living is because of the easy living that thousands of morally and mentally weak people make, by keeping the Bible reason

alive. I might ask you why does small pox come us through the centuries and command the attention of the world? Because a thing lives is no argument in favor of it being a blessing, looked at from a human standpoint. Heathen Bibles live also. They have lived longer than the Christian Bible.

Again,

down

to

Now a word or two in regard to the New Testament, which contains many beautiful things as well as many untruths and contradictions; also some vicious ideas. Some people say: take the good and let the bad alone. These words sound fair enough but a thinking person who is honest and cares for the welfare of his race will not utter them or listen to them. Because he sets a bad example to those below him to follow. We all have those below us who copy from us and are more apt to copy the bad in us then to copy the good. If we approve of a book that has bad and good in it, those below us will be more likely to approve of the bad in that book and let the good alone. While we, in taking the good and silently letting the bad alone, are committing what might properly be called a negative crime. We should take the good and condemn the bad in the strongest terms. If you indorse a book in which stealing, murdering and robbing is praised and sanctioned, even though the same book, in other chapters does teach virtue and gentleness, you thereby indorse the vileness when you

156

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

book without specially condemning the bad. say that such a book is the "Word of God," you cause weak minded people below you, who look up to you as a leader, to get a false impression and make the mistake of accepting as good, much of what you would consider bad. You set a bad example by allowing your mental religious self to associate with bad company and thereby mislead others. How about Luke Chapter 14, paragraph 26. Does that sound like "peace on earth good will to men?" Also Matthew chapter 10 paragraph 34. Ditto these are not words of Jesus of Nazareth. They are words of scheming priests, wishing to enslave and intimidate human minds so they may have wordly power and a praise the

When you

nice easy living.

See Matthew 15, paragraphs 24 and 26. This does not sound like Jesus of Nazareth. Calling everybody but Jews, dogs. Did Jesus say this? Matthew 5, paragraph 39; who believes this, or in other words who practices it? Still people claim to be followers of Jesus. What do you make out of Mathew 24 paragraph 34 and Luke 21 paragraph 32? According to the Bible Jesus virtually said that men standing before him could see his second coming before they passed on. Many are expecting him nearly two thousand years after he said he'd come. Jesus must have gotten dates mixed or the Bible has words mixed or something else. I am certain Jesus wouldn't lie about a little thing like that, and how could a god be mistaken? Oh, I know your priest or preacher will be able to explain it to your satisfaction by just making a few uncanny passes over your imagination and then you will see as clear as mud. The priest will explain to you that the word "generation" means two thousand years or any old thing that he takes a notion to do and you will believe him too. If he told you that fear means love you'd believe him. He tells you to fear the Lord because fear means love and you swallow it. If he told you hate meant love you

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

would believe it. But go to it, believe the that fits your mentality. Luke 5, paragraph 32. "I came not

157

sort of stuff

to call the righteous but Christians to repentance." That's the idea. Jesus knew what he was talking about. Look it up and see for yourself, I am quoting from memory and might possibly have twisted a word a little, but the meaning is

there.

See Luke 6, paragraph 1 to 9; also chapter 13, paragraph 13 to 16 and chapter 14, paragraph, 3 to 6. Jesus was criticised and and threatened for working on the Sabbath. We have a lot of silly vicious modern Sabbath worshippers who need a Jesus to rebuke them. I do not believe in a second coming of Jesus but, honestly, I believe there ought to be one, or a fool killer or something. Yes, maybe I would be the first one to get killed. I never thought of that, but any way I wouldn't have to go to the Christian heaven unless I wanted to, which would help some. I can tell you right here, I don't want to get to heaven through blood and murder. It makes no difference to me whether the man is double crossed first by Jews, then by a god, or whether he is stood up back to a wall and shot before sunrise. I just simply will not profit in the next world by any kind of murder in this world. I don't care a continental whether "divine" murder or just the ordinary hang man kind. not kiss the rope that hangs a man I will not kiss the spear that pierces a man I will not kiss the gun that kills a man neither will I bow before or kiss the horrible cross that killed the best man of earth. Anyone who will do it is deficient mentally or he is a criminal. Take your choice. I will have to get to heaven some other way than by drinking blood or wading through blood if I ever get there. If I can't get to heaven on my own it is

I will

;

;

;

and receiving love, I will try to No one shall suffer for my sins except myself, when it comes to matters between my Creator and myself. merits, through giving stear clear of heaven.

158

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

The Bible as a collection of ancient literature some of history, written by people of various degrees of ability and morality, is an interesting book and should be read and studied by everyone who desires to be well informed. But, the Bible as the "Word of God" is a hideous monster, a gigantic piece of pious fraud, and blasphemy against the Creator, Sustainer and Ruler of vast Universes of worlds. It is a venomous dragon, heathen born, and nurtured by a humanity hating, power loving, priestly it

crawling down through the ages, devouring and crushing countless thousands of men, women and children spreading hatred, pain, torture, sorrow and death causing blood and tears to flow through all ages. It produces ignorance and superstition. It used to crush truth and science by means of the torture chamber, dungeon and the burning stake, simply by those words of black magic such as "witch", "infidel", "heretic" hissed through the venomous lips of popes, priests and preachers until at last science, "the light of the world" and "the class,

;

hope of mankind" became strong enough to stop it's progress, but is not dead yet. It is only wounded and science must and will finish it's work. This huge monster has stood squarely across the path of progres for near two thousand years and contested every inch of the way made by science in it's struggle It still stands across to enlighten and free humanity. the path of progress and will still fight, through the priests, to hold it's sway over the world, but it is a weak, sick dragon in our day, thanks to the bravery and inteland sacrifices of countless thousands who, ligence through untold misery accomplished the partial defeat of the monster. "If it was not for one thing I would not disturb Christians in their religion, I would not disturb what they believe to be divine revelation. I would not disturb their peace and quiet, and by reason wake up the minds I would not endeavor of the simple and unreflecting. to turn the unwary out of the way of idiotic peace and

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE:

159

lazy mental subordination. I say if it were not for one thing, I would let the unthinking Christian hug his heathenish religion and go my way but I cannot do this even though it cost me sorrow, pain and torture and even death itself, because I feel that a burden has been placed on my shoulders by a higher power than earthly man, and as I have been shown through my intelligence the light, I must carry, the burden and deliver the message even though the heavens fall, for me."

Religious Christianity has always stood in the way of science and progress and it always will. The first thing to be done before trying to help usher in a higher civilization is to remove the monster lying across the path of progress. Our arithmatics, spelling books and dictionaries are words of man. They rarely give us wrong information. can rely on what they tell us. The Bible is said to be the "Word of God" and it is full of misstatements and errors. How long would a "word of man" stay in our schools if it contained the misstatements and nastiness so common in the Christian "Word of God?" The Bible says this earth is about six thousand years old. Geology says, and has proved it to be millions of

We

year old.

The Bible and it's student taught for two thousand years or more that our earth is flat, standing still with the sun revolving around it. Astronomy teaches and proves it to be round and to be moving around the sun. The Bible teaches that man was made perfect and "fell"

Biology teaches that man has evolved or developed from lower animal life. This all proves that the Bible, the Christian "Word of God" is not a good authority. It is full of error. The Bible has caused much crime and murder to be committed on earth and a great deal of it to be done in the name of Jesus and the cross. The Bible is full of mis-

IS

160

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

The Bible recognizes and upholds slavery which has caused untold millions of people to takes and blunders. suffer.

The

was responsible

our own The Bible caused the wrong idea of slavery to live and grow and is responsible for misery and suffering this wrong idea Bible

country which caused our

civil

for slavery in

war.

caused.

What

Christianity and the Bible has done in the past in the future under similiar conditions. It is a fact that Christianity and the Bible has caused thousands of the best of humanity to be murdered in ancient times, but I would like to see all that is good in Christianity saved and see all that is not good, crushed and discarded. All the good that is in Christianity was copied from religions that were here before Christianity came on earth. There is more error than truth in it and it must pass on. It is a crime against our young to teach them the falsehoods of Christianity as infallible it

would do again

truth.

The kind of Christianity that most of our modern churches teach does not make bad men better in an It makes cowards out of bad men if instant, if at all. they take any stock in it. They never take much stock in the Christian heaven as their mentality cannot comprehend it. They fear the Christian hell, which has a restraining influence and thereby acomplishes some good. But more good can be accomplished by being honest with bad men and teaching them that the only hell they will ever know is of their own making the one they are continually building by their every day thoughts and acts; the hell they are constructing out of 'thought bricks" and "act timbers;" and that they could just as well be constructing a palace of happiness instead. ;

They can be made to realize this. They know that the theft committed ten years before is recorded in their book of life as plain as though it was committed but yesterday. They know that it cannot be erased by them

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

161

or any power on earth. They know their good acts stand out as clearly and that their reward or punishment will be the difference between the good thoughts and acts and the bad ones. It does not take a "Saviour" to tell

us

this.

Moses was a monster. He ordered thirty two thousand young girls into white slavely at one time. The Jewish god was a manmade god, made by Moses the Monster. The Jewish god was the father of the Christian god. We must have a bigger and broader minded god a Humanitarian God, whose chosen people are all people of earth regardless of what they "believe." "I have been condemned by a preacehr for trying to take from the poor hard working widow her only comfort the idea of a blessed redeemer and the future happiness in the next world; a thought that sustains her in her hardships and lightens her long weary hours of toil, and I am asked what I am going to give her in return?"

"Well, in the first place I am going to help change our economic conditions so as to shorten her hours of toil by half and double her pay which will help some. It will give her time to improve her mind, wear better clothes, be somebody, and let truth have a chance to crowd from her mind those "beautiful" Christian fairy, murder tales that makes her a mental as well as a physical slave. I will teach her that she can be her own "redeemer." That if she does what she knows to be right, that she will not need any other redeemer; that she is just as good and worthy as the best mortal on earth as long as she behaves herself; that she has a right to say to priests and preachers and redeemers: get from before the love of God and me. I will answer for my own sins and keep my money spend to improve my mental condition instead of giving to noisy, shallow preachers who lives off of the earnings of such as me, without working like I do." "I will help usher in a new economic system that will put the useless, idle though healthy and able, priests to

to

God Almighty

IS

162

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

to work to make up the extra takes to shorten the hours and increase the pay of the 'poor widow woman, the preachers and bankers seem so concerned about."

and preachers included,

amount

it

Foot Note In the foregoing and following chapter, I have quoted from, (to me) unknown authors. I have put their words in quotation marks, and I would give credit if I knew the names of the authors. All of the matter in quotation marks, unsigned, from this page to page 180 are words of John E. Remsburg. I have quoted or drawn from the writings of Andrew D. White James Freeman Clark Robert G. Ingersoll Thomas Jefferson Tom Paine David Hume Voltaire Victor Hugo Robert Burns Dr. Talmage

Henry Ward Beecher Zoroaster

Pythagoras

Lord Byron Martin Luther Diogenes Pittacus Thales

Seneca Aristotle Plato Plutarch Cato Cicero I have put into Jesus of Nazareth and many others. the concrete a few of their best thoughts on things worth while in this life while exposing what seems to me to be some of the bad thoughts of. some of the above named authors.

HEATHEN CHRISTIANITY "No man

taketh 10-18.

it

from me, but I lay it down According to the Bible the mythi(life)

myself" John cal Jesus was a suicide.

Are these words of the

Can

a suicide save the race?

real Jesus or are

they words of

priests? Christians would try and cause us to believe that their god is so just that he could not possibly let man's sin go unpunished and so unjust that he could cruelly murder the best man of earth to get blood to wash men's sin clothing in.

Martin Luther said: "If men only believe enough Christ they can commit adultery and murder a thousand times a day without periling their salvation." AYas Martin Luther a Christian? What kind of a Christian was he? Christianity appeals to credulity instead of morality. Christianity says, believe and be saved. Morality says be good and be saved. If you do not "believe," you in

cannot become a Christian, no matter

how good and

noble you are.

You

know

Dr. Talmage the great Christian what he said "Today I offer you the pardon of the gospel full pardon, free pardon. I care not what your crime has been. Though you say you have committed a crime against God. against your own soul, against your fellow man, against your family, against the day of judgment, teacher.

all

This

is

:

against the cross of Christ whatever your crime has been, here is pardon, full pardon, and the very moment you take the pardon, your heavenly Father throws his arms about you and says 'My son, I forgive you. It is alright. You are as much in my favor now as if you :

never had sinned'."

Xow which

isn't this beautiful religious molasses with to catch silly human flies? And the pity of it all

IS

164

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

Luther and Dr. Tarmage were honest is, that Martin conscientious men who believed the Bible to be the word to idiotic of God and followed where the Bible led criminal teachings. :

gentlmen were correct in their teachings, not have a good the use in being good? time committing crime all our lives and just before we die, "believe," "confess," "ask forgiveness," fall into the If these

what

Why

is

of God and go straight to heaven? Lazy, easy, cowardly, dishonest and silly is it not? Of course the intelligent would not reason this way, but the ignorant

arms

and brutal do. "He that says the gospel reMartin Luther said quires works for salvation, I say flat and plain, he is :

a liar."

Does

A

lazy religion for you. sound like a true follower of the true Jesus

this

No matter how moral you are, how selfand how benevolent, you will go to hell if you

of Nazareth? sacrificing

do not "believe" what heathen Christianity teaches. See Mark 16-16: "He that believeth and is baptised shall be saved but he that believeth not shall be damned." How gentle and loving! Are these words of Jesus of Nazareth or words of priests spoken by the mythical Christ, the half-god, half-man person? How much longer is the world going to stand for this blasphemy? Jesus, the humane man, could not and did not utter such words. part of your

Come Christians, own great and grand

believe religion.

in

the

better

Forget what

these heathen priests wrote in your Bible. Read what a great man once said, it may shock you a little but you need to be shocked some, it will be good it will not hurt you at all. "Redden your hands with human blood blast by slander the fair fame of the innocent; strangle the smiling child upon its mothers knees; deceive, ruin and desert the beautiful girl who loves and trusts you, and your case is not hopeless. For all this and all these, you may be forgiven. For all this and all these, that bankrupt

for you,

;

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

165

court established by gospel, will give you a discharge but deny the existence of these gods, and the sweet and ;

mercy becomes lived with eternal hate. Heaven's golden gates are shut, and you with an infinite curse ringing in your ears, with the brand of infamy on your brow, commence your endless wanderings in the an immortal vagrant, an eternal lurid gloom of hell Robert G. Ingersoll. outcast, a deathless convict." Also read what Robert Burns, the poet, said: "A gloomy heaven above opening its jealous gates to the nineteen-thuosand part of the tithe of mankind, and below an inexorable Hell expanding its leviathan jaws tearful face of

O

doctrine comfortable for the vast residue of mortals. and healing to the weary wounded soul of man !"

The above is what Robert Burns had to say about heathen Christianity, was he mistaken? Was Robert Was Dr. Talmage and Martin Ingersoll mistaken? Luther mistaken? Matthew 25-46: "And these shall go away into everlasting punishment." No one but a devilish priest could or would utter such words. As if we did not have world without human devils in this enough misery clothed in cowls spreading mental anguish among the ignorant and superstitious, calling it religion. Jesus of Xazareth never spoke these words. Heathen Christianity must be gotten rid of at all costs, as we cannot have world peace until we do get It rid of it. It is a war maker and always has been. divides well meaning people and causes them to fight. "Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire." Matthew 25-41. Also Mark 16-16: "He that believeth not shall be damned." Do you think for a minute that Jesus of Nazareth ever spoke such words? If he did he was not the loving brotherly person we think him to have been. I say he never uttered such words or thought such thoughts, and that such sayings were written into the Bible by designing and dishonest priests, and should be scratched out, torn out or burned out ot the "Word

IS

166

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

Such writings make devils of God and Jesus. people will read their Bibles intelligently we But while will soon get rid of heathen Christianity. the Bible remember the following statereading please ments that can be proven beyond the question of a doubt:

of God."

If all

The Golden Rule was taught by Confucius, Pittacus, Thales, Sextus Isocrates, Aristotle and others long before Jesus of Nazareth was born. Epicurus said: "It is more blessed to give than receive."

Aristotle taught that it is better to bear an injury than retaliate. Jesus taught the same, afterwards. Diogenes Laertus records many Greek philosophers who taught "love your enemies." So did Jesus, afterwards.

All the good that is in Christianity was taught by It is my religions before Christianity came. opinion that Jesus taught it better than any one before or since his time. I may be wrong but this is my present belief in regard to the matter. St. Paul was, and is considered the greatest Christian He believed in and ever lived. that preacher preached slavery. Many believe him to have been

Pagan

inspired.

Here

If this is

some

be inspiration give me something else. of St. Pauls inspiration contained in

Corinthians, 14-34: "Let your women keep silence in the churches for it is not permitted unto them to speak, but they are commanded to be under obedience, as also saith the law. And if they will learn anything let them ask their husbands at home for it is a shame for a woman to speak in the church." Also 1 Timothy 2-11 to 15: "Let the women learn ;

and subjection." again, Colossians 3-18: "Wives submit yourselves to your husbands." Ephesians 5-24: "As the church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their husbands in everything." He virSt. Paul was a would-be woman enslaver. in silence

And

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

inferior to men and should But mighty few of them are They evidently will have none of St. Pauls

tually said that

women were

back and

go way doing it.

167

sit

down.

He St. Paul was not a believer in science. inspiration. "The wisdom of this world is foolishness with said :

God." St. Paull did not encourage Astironomy, Geology, Chemistry, Biology, Mathematics or anything taught in our schools. According to St. Paul our schools teach "foolishness." I think St. Paul's head was full of foolishness. We can get along a great deal better by what St. Paul called "foolishness" than we studying can by studying what St. Paul taught. Of course he taught some things that are good and always will be good, this we can accept because it is good and not because he taught it. He taught nothing that was not

taught before his time. Victor Hugo said in speaking of priests and preachers "Every step which the intelligence of Europe has taken, has been in spite of you." :

"There is in every village a lighted torch, the schoolmaster, and a mouth to blow it out, the parson Ibid" Pretty strong talk Mr. Preacher. Think this over. Whatever St. Paul said, should be looked on with He was not a straightforward, open-andsuspicion. above-board, honest man. That is if we are to believe his own writings in the Bible. Listen to what he says of himself: "Being crafty I caught you with guile." 2 Corinthians 12-16. "Unto the Jews I became a Jew, that I might gain the Jews" 1 Corinthians 9-20 also: "I am made all things to all men," verse 22. In other words, St. Paul virtually says: When I go I put on sheeps clothing. How far can you trust such a fellow? The greatest preacher of Christianity acknowledged that he played hyprocrite whenever he could gain by it. He also played robber "I robbed other churches taking wages of them" 2 Co-

among sheep

:

rinthians 11-8.

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

IS

168

Now

get your local pastor to explain this away for Of course he can. He can "explain" anything to your satisfaction. Why shouldnt he? You

you.

Can he?

pay him for

it.

Jesus of Nazareth probably the greatest man who ever lived on earth said: "Love one another." Dr. Talmadge said "A red line runs through church history for nearly nineteen hundred years a line of blood not by hundreds, but by millions we count the slain." :

;

Do Christians follow the real man Jesus? Should Christians blame thinking people for pronouncing Christianity a failure? Lord Byron said "I had rather be a Gentile than one of the seventy-two villianous sects who are tearing each other to pieces for the love of the Lord and hatred of each other." St. Paul said in 1 Corinthians A 10, 13: "We are fools for Christ sake." :

Clesus, who lived when Christianity was taking shape, said the following was; one of the main Christian rules "Let no man that is learned, wise or prudent, come among us; but if they be unlearned, or a child or an :

him freely come. So they openly declared that none but the ignorant, and those devoid of understanding, slaves, ignorant women and children are fit disciples for god they worship." Of course it would be mostly ignorant women. No other kind of women would sit and idiot, let

preacher like St. Paul, that commanded them shut up, give up and be abject slaves of brutal husbands, as no other kind of husbands would ask or expect such, of women. This author also said "You may see weavers, tailors, fullers and the most illiterate of rustic fellows, who dare not speak a word before wise men, when they can listen to a

to

:

company of children and silly women together set to teach strange paradoxes among them." The same thing happens to-day. All new, revealed religions start among the ignorant,

get a

up

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

169

and flourish among the ignorant, or unthinking, for that matter. Many worthy unthinking people inherit such a religion, but few acquire it through serious thought. Many adopt it because of various considerations other than real belief, while there is, no denying the fact that far too many really and truly believe the silliest trash as absolute truth.

The body of the mythical Christ must be taken from the ancient cross, a symbol of the most brutal crime of history, and buried. And the cross, as an idol must be dethroned forever, so that ignorant disciples, hysterical women, designing men, and hungry preachers can forget become real manly and womanly citizens of a it, and scientific, thinking, happy world, where sane acting is the rule instead of the exception. The slander against Jesus of Nazareth, one of the worlds greatest and will be cleared.

men

must,

I do not know that Jesus of Nazareth ever lived, but believe he did. I stand ready to change that belief at any time. All I care for is the truth, for the truths sake only. I do not wish to hug a false belief simply because I have believed it. I have put in about forty years, investigating, studying and contemplating. Trying to arrive at the truth of this matter because I cousider it important. I certainly can see no harm in believing that a man named Jesus of Nazareth, once lived and that he was one of the greatest and best men of earth. There is a lot of good evidence that says so. I know that many of his sayings, or what history teaches us, are his sayings, are the best of advice to follow. Although many of his sayings are the worst that could be said "Depart ye unto everlasting punisment" if we are to believe the Bible. But this does not lessen the force and effect or moral worth of his best teachings. And I am one who is going to believe the good teachings because they are good, and not because Jesus taught them. I am also going to reject the vicious teachings because my reason I

IS

170 tells

me

or

said to

is

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

they are vicious, no matter have taught them.

who

taught them

I am even going a little further and refuse to believe that Jesus taught the vicious teachings. I prefer to believe that priestly writers lied about Jesus and immortalized their lies by incorporating such in the Bible, as they had all the chance in the world to do it without

being exposed. I cannot believe that a sane man or a sane god, even could or would say in one breath "Do as you wish to be done by," and in the next breath say. "Believe or be :

dammed." "Return I cannot believe that Jesus said at one time good for evil," and at another time: "Those that deny me on earth I will deny before God." This would not be consistent. This would be spiteful. This would be :

the priests it,

way

of doing

it,

not the Jesus

would not be returning good

this

way

of doing

for evil.

I cannot believe that Jesus said that it is better to be injured than to injure any one and then said: "Depart ye unto everlasting punishment." These latter words

words of vile priests to me. Sending men and to hell forever is not practicing the doctrine of "better to be injured than to injure." Something wrong with the Bible. sound

like

women

I

believe that

most

of the

words of the Christian

Bible,

supposed to be words of Jesus; are merely words of scheming priests. They certainly seem to be to any one who will study and use horse sense in judging it

We must get rid of the cross as a religious idol. It had reference to and represented the sexual element, for pagans, for centuries before Christianity borrowed it to represent murder. "The worship of God, the Father has repeatedly clashed with that of God, the Mother and the votaries of each respectively have worn badges characteristic of the sex of their deity."

IS

The

pillar,

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE? spire

171

and the cross always represented

the male god.

"The symbol of Phallic worship, the cross, has become the emblem of Christianity. We find the cross in India Egypt, Thibet, Japan, always as the sign of life giving power; it was worn as an amulet by girls and women, and seems to have been especially worn by the women attached to the temples (sacred prostitutes,) as

a symbol of what was, to them a religious calling. The cross is in fact nothing but the refined phallus, and in the Christian religion is a sufficient emblem of its Pagan origin; it was adored, carved in temples and worn as a sacred emblem, by sun and nature worshippers, long before there were any Christians to crave, adore and wear it. The crowd kneeling before the cross in Christian churches, is a simple reproduction of crowd who knelt before it in the temples of ancient days, and the girls who wear it in our day are innocent and unconscious of its

original

women wore

when Egyptian and Indian thousands of years before Jesus came on

significance it

earth."

^

Christians fill their churches and homes with the emblem of Bel and Astarte, Baalim and Astoreth and elevate the cross, the phallus to the position of the supreme deity.

The Christian cross and church spire represents parts human body which nature as well as civilization

of the

A relic of ancient Paganism conceal. copied by Christians. "Under the Kings of Judah and Israel, the symbol of Aschera (the phallus) became an object of general piety which was found in every house." teaches us to

"The history of Osiris, Bacchus, Appolo and the Christian cross god are almost identically the same. All are masculine gods. The mythical Jesus is a solar god, as all solar gods had Christmas as their birthday, twelve apostles or twelve signs of the Zodiac, expired towards sunset, sun-day, the day of worship. The cross and

172

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

was an emblem of solar worship. was carved or painted on, or within a circle representing the horizon the head and feet outstretched arms of the sacrifical offering or curcified Redeemer pointing especially the crucifix, It

;

towards the four quarters of the horizon. The Lords supper was observed in memory of Mithra, Bacchus and other solar gods. The nimbus or aureola surrounding the head of the mythical Jesus in his portraits, represents the rays of the sun. It was thus that the ancient adorers of the sun adorned the effigies of their god. There still exists a pillar erected by the sun worshippers of Carthage. On this pillar is carved the sun god Baal, with the nimbus encircling his head."

"The Christian doctrine of the resurrection had its As the sun, the Father, arose origin in sun worship. from the dead, so it was believed that his earthly children would also arise from the dead."

"Many scholars, including Thomas Jefferson, have held that Christ and his twelve Apostles related to the Zodiac and were derived from this stellar worship/ The Jewish god Jehovah was

a god of blood and Every time he turned around he spilled blood and The ancient Hebrews were a brutal ignorant spit fire. people. Probably no more so than many another ancient But nevertheless they were crude and necespeople. a crude religion with some good in it. The anhad sarily cient Hebrews worshiped fire and blood and scattered it around freely. The mythical Jesus was said to have fire.

baptised with fire, especially those who displeased him, as he sent them to everlasting fire. The Hebrews kept fire burning on their alters for centuries and when they felt a little extra religious they added blood to the fire

to please their god. A nice gentle god and religion to be ancestors of our god and religion. He taught the Hebrews to steal, murder, enslave men and women and practice immorality against virtuous young girls of other tribes or races of people.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

173

In In Egypt they worshipped the bull god Apis. India they worshipped a cow god. The Jews worshipped a golden calf god, and we w orship a cross god, a murder The Jews worshipped one god and believed in god. r

They gave allegiance to one without denying existence of others. Christians have five gods: Father, Son, Holyghost, Satan and a female god Mary, who is similar to the Egyptian Isis and the European many. the

Venus. Zoroaster and his earliest followers believed in one only. Later they believed in as many gods as Chris-

god

tians

do to-day.

"The god of the Jews was Jefferson said and unjust." A thousand years before Jesus was born the doctrine of the Trinity was preached in Egypt. Osiris-Isis-Horus Also in India, centuries before Jesus, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva constitutes the principal trinity. The Trinity was a Pagan doctrine that Christianity borrowed. So was

Thomas

:

cruel, vindictive

heaven and hell, angels and spirits, virgin mother, immaculate conception, saviour of men who performed miracles of healling the sick and raising the dead. All this and much more was preached centuries before the birth of Jesus. There is a story about hiding Horus in a marsh by his mother Isis, centuries before Moses was born. (Looks like the Moses bulrush story was copied from this more ancient story.) There is also an ancient Egyptian story about the sun and moon standing still at the death of Horus. (How about this Joshua?) The ancient Egyptian Isis and Horus are similar to our comparatively modern Mary and Jesus, Madonna and Child. Isis is veiled, so were the earlier representatives of Mary. "The stories of the resurrections of Adonis, in Phoenicia, of Osiris in Egypt and of Dionysos in Greece were old when Jesus was born, and paved the way for the origin and acceptance of the story of the resurrection of Jesus."

IS

174

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

Five centuries before Jesus, Prometheus the Titan god was worshipped. The legend is that he, like Jesus, came on earth to intercede and suffer vicariously for the race. If the story of the mythical Jesus was not taken from the earlier story of Prometheus it certainly did not contain anything new even to the earthquake and darkness alleged. Ancient Greece was great on immaculate conceptions. Christianity could have borrowed this idea from several ancient religions as most of them advocated it. Plato taught the most of what Christianity teaches, especially the best part. If Christianity did not borrow from Plato, it at least did not not put forward anything

new. Pythagoras of Greece and Italy lived near the time of Guatama and Confucius. There was a small Jewish sect, known as the Essenes, which adopted to a large extent the teachings of Pythagoras. Jesus is believed to have belonged to this sect. This sect taught many things that are in the New Testament as follows "It is law among them, that those who come to them must let what they have be common to the whole :

order."

"They carry nothing at all with them when they travel into remote parts." "Every one of them gives what he hath to him that wanteth, it."

"A

priest says grace before meat." of peace."

"They are ministers "Whatever they say

also is firmer than an oath but Swearing is avoided by them." The above with many other similar sayings were written over a century before the New Testament was written, that is, if we are to take any stock in the writings of Josephus and other great writers. Remember this and read the following and note the similarity ;

:

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

175

Acts 4-32, Matthew 10-9 and Matthew 5-42. Luke 225-9 also 34 and 37. Cakes were eaten in honor of the goddess Ceres and wine used in honor of the god Bacchus before the time 19

Matthew

of Jesus.

The bread

of Ceres and the wine of Bacchus was Christians and is today the Body and Blood copied by of Jesus ancient Pagan ceremonies adopted by modern ;

Christians.

"The Athenians long before the time of Jesus celebrated the allegorical giving of the flesh to eat of Ceres, the goddess of corn, and in like manner the giving his blood to drink by Bacchus, the god of wine."

The ancient inhabitants of Greece had their "holy water" with \vhich to purify themselves before entering a temple. Their women carried and bowed before the phallus even as our women of to-day bow before the cross which anciently represented the phallus, but which represents ancient murder in our time. Saturn was one of the oldest of the European gods worshipped in Italy, a thousand years before the time of Jesus. His greatest day was the winter solstice extended to include December 25th. All business was suspended and a general celebration proclaimed extending over several days. Presents were exchanged somewhat as they are to-day and candles were burned also. Now understand, this was a thousand years before Jesus was born. Strange Jesus was born on this day, is it not? That the mythical Jesus only, was born on this day is the reasonable assumption. The real Jesus was probably not born Christmas time. Most people are familiar with the story of Romulus, founder of Rome whose name was changed to Quirinus. See "Chambers Encylopedia." It says the sun was eclipsed, a dark storm was on, and Romulus was carried up to heaven in a "Chariot of fire." He afterwards reappeared in a "glorified" form. Sounds a lot like our Bible. This "chariot of fire"

176

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

route to heaven, glorified reappearance, ascention talk, mother, miraculous everything fairy tales are thousands of years older than Christianity. So do virgin

not blame Christianity for inventing them, it merely copied them it copied all it has, the good as well as the bad, the supernatural darkness and reappearance. The Roman myths, suggest the supernatural darkness and ;

All transfiguration of the cross tragedy, and so on. revealed religions are a jumble of myth, fancy and superstition. Heathen Christianity is no exception. The Easter festival in honor of the Saxon goddess Ostara, the goddess of Spring, was celebrated because of the resurrection of Spring and flowers, before Jesus came on earth. Strange he was resurrected at this particular time. Hillel, the Babylonian Jew who lived a century before Jesus was born said: ''What is hate to thee, do not

unto thy fellow-men." "Nearly every festival of Christianity is of Pagan origin. Every day of the week bears a pagan name, four of which are taken from Scandinavian gods. The Chris-

word "hell," was derived from "Hel" the name of the Norse goddess of the lower world. The following ideas are all of Pagan origin and appeared on earth at least five hundred years before the birth of Jesus: Son of God, Messiah, Immaculate conception, Virgin mother, Angel visitors, Celestial music, Star of magi, redeemer. Transfiguration, Crucified Supernatural darkness, Resurrection, Ascension, Second advent, Trinity and Unity, Holy Ghost, Devil, Angels, Immortality of the soul, Heaven, Hell, Fatherhood of God, Brotherhood of man, Vicarious atonement, Miracles, The cross as a religious symbol, Holy water, Lords tian

Day, Christmas, Easter, Fasting, Prayer, Golden Rule and dozens of other ideas adopted by Christianity and claimed as revealed to Christians direct from God. All these ideas and many more similiar ones, were old to the world five centuries before Jesus was born. The

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

177

Assyrians, a thousand years before Christianity was born, had a legend of a garden of Eden, the making of man and women, the temptation and fall, the serpent, the flaming sword the Deluge and ark, the Tower of of Babel," and much more poetic speculation similar to the Jewish account in our Christian Bible. That the Jews borrowed this gossip from the Assyrians is very reasonable to suppose. "The ten antidiluvian patriarchs Adam, Seth, Enos, :

Cainan, Mahalaleel, Jared, Enoch, Methuselah, Lamech and Noah, whom Luke presents as the first ten progenitors of Christ, are now known to have been a dynasty of Babylonian kings/' "Abram, Isaac, Jacob, and Judah who both Mathew and Luke declare to have been ancestors of Christ, and whom Mathew places at the head of his genealogy, were not persons at all, but merely tribes of people." Rev. Dr. Ort, professor of Oriental languages at Amsterdam. The old Testament is a Christian version of ancient Jewish writings more or less "doctored" to aid Christianity.

The "Word." as an emanation of essence of divine wisdom is very old. Egypt, India and Persia had it in their religions. It was the basis of 'Platonism and Zoroastrianism.

Much of the New Testament might have been copied from writings of Seneca, Philo, Plato as all of these men lived and wrote before the new Testament was written and their writings contain much that is in it. The mythical Christian Christ is a growth out of religious ideas and systems that existed previous to his birth. Many gods and saviours lived or existed in the minds of men centuries before the Christian God, and the Christian Christ came on mans mental earth. Krishna was the Hindoo Jesus of Nazareth. He was one of the Hindoo Trinity. He began to live in the minds of the Hindus about 100 years before Jesus. He was miraculously conceived, of royal descent, born in

IS

178

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

a prison, among strangers, angels sang at his birth, shepherds visited the babe and virgin mother, the reiging monarch sought to destroy him, he was saved by friends who fled with him in the night to distant countries, the king ordered all infants to be put to death so as to get the particular one out of the way. His mission was the salvation of mankind. He performed miracles, healed the sick he cleansed the leprous, raised the dead, died for man, was killed by men.

Now

this all sounds very much like the Christian If it Christ, written a century before Jesus was born. had happened a century after Jesus was on earth, Christians would claim that the Hindus copied trom them. This is history, this is indisputable fact, draw your own

conclusions.

Somebody copied. Gautama died 563 years before Jesus was born. He was about thirty years old when he began his ministry.

He fasted forty nine days. He He had disciples. traveled from place to place and preacehd to multitudes. He preached a Sermon on the Mount. He forsook He came to establish father, mother, wife and child. righteousness. He promised salvation to all. He sent his disciples to preach in all places and to all men. He preached self conquest, charity, and return good for evil, over come anger with love, and love your enemies. He said do not kill, do not steal, do not lie, do not commit

adultery, do not use strong drink. He descended from kings, had a virgin mother, his conception was announced by a divine messenger.

He was

visited by wise men who brought gifts, fasted wilderness was tempted, angels ministered to him, his mission was proclaimed by a voice from heaven, he performed miracles, he preached on the "Holy Hill ;" the story of the prodigal son is among his sayings he uses the mustard seed as a simile for smallness; he speaks of building on sand, of the rain falling on the just and unjust; a "Mary Magdalene" woman followed him, her name was Ambapali he had a traitor among in the

;

;

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

IS

179

he proclaimed his Kingdom not of this world and many, many other thing's that he did and said, are similar to what Christianity claims to have invented, between five and six hundred years after Gautama lived. AYhat would you think of a fellow claiming to have invented the steam engine centuries after its actual discovery had been advertised to the world? his followers

;

In reading your Bible consider the following: Mathew 16-19 "And I will give unto thee the keys of the Kingdom of heaven and whosoever thou shalt bind on earth shall be bound in heaven and whatsoever thou shalt loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." Did Jesus give such tremendous power to Peter the traitor? The man who denied him three times in one night and to whom Jesus said: "Get thee behind me Satan thou art an offense unto me for thou savourest not the things that be of God, but those that be of men." Nice man to put in full power over the eternal welfare of billions of men, women and children of earth. wave of his traitor, a coward and a rebuker of Jesus. hand, and we all go to hell forever. Jesus never gave :

:

:

;

A

A

man such power. Jesus never had such power to give. These are words of priests. Mark, Luke and John do not record this most important incident. Why not? Peter not only denied Jesus but he "cursed and swore" about it. A fine fellow to rule heaven and earth. Good men must have been scarce in those days. Peter was anxious to know what his salary was to be. Matthew 19-27. Peter was evidently a selfish, traitorous, cowardly vulgar, undeserving man, if Bible accounts are true. Jesus had poor judgment or a poor lot of men to pick from. The latter must have been the case if Luke 22-24 this

is correct: "And there was also a strife among them, which of them should be accounted the greatest." This was immediately after Jesus had told his disciples that he would be betrayed and die on the cross. Instead of feeling sad on account of the coming death of their Master they began to quarrel among them-

IS

180

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

who was going

to be boss when Jesus was dead. twelve Christians were certainly a fine lot. It is a wonder that they did not quarrel over the clothes that Jesus wore. They were a set of heartless men all

selves

The

first

right.

Matthew 26-56. When the Jews came to "Then all the disciples forsook him and

arrest Jesus, fled."

Brave

One traitor, eleven fellow, these first twelve Christians cowards. Rather a poor starter for Christianity. of these cowards are given credit for writing three of !

Two

the most important books of the New Testament. A coward is usually a liar also. Peter was both. He deserted Jesus and 'denied him thrice." And still millions of people believe Peter to have been given power

over heaven and earth. Is this reasonable? Does God pick out cowards and liars and exalt them over their betters? If He does, why be brave and honest? Matthew and John were both cowards, they deserted Jesus at the critical time. Were they liars also? Should we believe all that such men say? Heathen Christianity began with a murder that it has been proud of for centuries. That original murder has caused millions of other murders. It is time to stop this Forget the cross but remember religious foolishness. Jesus and his best teachings. A person said to me recently: "You certainly have undertaken a big job, trying to refrom religion and business both. You will never do it. You can't change a religion and a business system that have lived two thousand years. While I am not competent to argue with you, I believe you to be wrong and I think you are presumptions to think you can. You should leave such matters to our really great men our presidents, our judges, our congressmen, our bankers and our ministers. They should know more about these things than you ;

do."

Thanks, family.

friend.

You

can't

I

see

to the "can't" yourself and you

you belong

make an argument

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

181

can't meet my argument. You can't do something worth while and you can't get out of the way. You can't give out an idea and you can't grasp an idea. You can't help and you can't quit hindering. You can't say anything worth saying and you can't shut up. About all you can do is to "can't." While you are "can't-ing," I intend to work and do what little I can towards reforming religion, government, business or anything else that I think needs reforming. Nothing is too hard for me to try and help reform, unless it would

be a chronic "cant-er." If reforming is left to presidents, judges, congressmen, bankers and ministers, it will never be done. They are not in the reforming business. If they tried it they would lose their jobs. All reforms come from the bottom, not from the top. The greatest reformer on earth was not a president, judge, congressman, banker or minister. He preached, yes, but not the mushy stuff we hear today. He taught the people what they must do I am a follower of him trying to pass his You are not competend to judge along. whether I am correctly quoting .him unless you know what his teachings really are. You do not grasp the full meaning of his teachings unless you study them yourself as you cannot make any headway listening to what the preacher says on Sunday, forgetting it on Monday, if you do not connect these teachings with

to be saved.

thoughts

,

week-day business affairs. If you listen to the tale about the "money changers" and think of it as a religious incident of olden times, you fail to grasp the full meaning of it. This act of Jesus

was not so much a religious incident as it was economic. It was a protest against business robbery a protest ;

against people getting something for nothing; a protest against people cheating. It is not a story to mumble in Sunday school and marvel over, but a lesson that we

should apply to every day life. And again: you should not accept as truth and

fact.

IS

182

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

anything whatever, just because Jesus said it, or because he is said to have said it. It should look reasonable to you or you should discard it, even as you accept or discard what I am telling you. If you do not follow your reason in all matters you voluntarily place yourself on a plane with the lower animals.

You should not accept a statement as fact, that seems unreasonable to you, just because a president, a judge, a minester or Jesus said it to be true. Jesus could not have said all that he is said to have said and still have been sane. But he said so many things that are the essence of wisdom, we have a right to believe that he did not say the many foolish and vicious things attributed to him. It is also possible that he never said the wise sayings, but it should make but little difference to us who spoke the wise words. Personality should not add weight to wise words., You

people

who worship

Jesus as a god, lose the

manly wisdom. The tinsel glitter of his supposed divinity, blinds you so you can se* nothing else. It keeps you from seeing wrongs we are suffering from. Your attention is centered on yourself and the effect of his

We

need a church that does not teach mythical Jesus. this fable but which will teach wordly knowledge that A church where all such questions can is worth while. be talked over in a religious manner. Where all people, of various ideas, can exchange views and learn from one another, uninfluenced by politics, religion or selfish motives. A place where "people" meet, not where Democrats, Republicans, Protestants or Catholics meet. These great questions are for the "people" to settle, not

any particular party, clique or clan to settle and we need a Church of the People, in the broader sense of the word, to aid us. The Christian church is not equal to the occasion; it is too narrow and selfish to take in for

all it

of

humanity unless all of humanity believes just what all of humanity to believe.

tells

The

Christian church

is

the church of a

man-made

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

183

god, a mythical Goliath that has come swaggering down through the centuries to us with the cross, a symbol of murder, in one hand, and the sword, an emblem of war and destruction, in the other hand, while on his cruel lips are the horrible words "Believe or be damned,"

"Depart ye into everlasting hell fire," scattering terror and gloom among children, and fear and hyprocracy among ignorant and superstitious men and woman; making war on science, truth and justice; leaving a bloody trail strewn with the bodies of burned witches, slandered scientists and outraged thinkers. Followed and supported by priests and money changers who fatten on the misfortune and slavery of those who dare not think, because of the presence of this hideous man-made monster who dwells between the covers of our supposed

"word of god." While far in the rear we faintly see the pathetic figure of the "Man of Sorrows," trudging along bare-headed and barefooted, carrying the sins of billions of unthinking, selfish Christians, mumbling the words: "Peace be unto you" "Forgive them for they know not what they do," wearing a crown of thorns with a ghastly wound in his side, out of which pours blood enough to wash a dirty world whiter than snow. Slandered, persecuted and murdered by Jews and Roafter having been double-crossed by the man-made

mans

god who professes piety but spits hell-fire at all who oppose him, and enslaves all who follow him. This man-made Christian Goliath must be met and slain. Education is the David that will use the stone of reason in the sling of fearless thought to strike the monster down. Then humanity can march forward once more. The two Testaments of the Christian Bible are religious "Siamese Twins." They were so intimately connected and interwoven by their authors and compilers (ancient priests) that they cannot be separated with out death to heathen Christianity.

The Old Testament

teaches

all

kinds of slavery, "white

IS

184

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

teaches dishonesty, murder and war. teaches and approves of murder, as divine, and asks all of humanity to sanction it and drink blood derived from the murder of an innocent man.

slavery" included.

It

The New Testament

The

Bible may be the word of the Christian God, but it is not the word of the Supreme Creator, Ruler and Sustainer of All. certainly

Christians profess to believe that the brutal killiner of Jesus on the cross, was "divine" murder. To me there is no such a thing as "divine" murder. I claim that it is just as inspiring to watch a Turk murder an Armenian as it is to watch a Christian burn a witch at the stake, or to see the Jews kill a god on the cross, or to see an Apache kill a white man or a robber shoot down a law abiding citiAll such acts appear to me to be cold blooded murzen. der, and I refuse to take a benefit from any such incident, either here on earth below or in heaven above.

Yes,

am peculiar, judged from a Chrismoral education was neglected in There were no priests or preachers around to

I realize that I

tian standpoint.

childhood.

My

mentality to turn religious somersaults. In time may progress up to the point where I can distinguish between "divine" murder committed by Christians and their train

my

I

god, and heathen murder, committed by burglars, highwaymen, Turks, Japs and their gods. At present my education will not allow me to distinguish the difference. I do not think that Christians have a right to call Turks and Japs, "heathens." Neither do I think it is right for the Turks to refer to the followers of the mythical Jesus This is not nice and many times it is as "Christian dogs." an injustice to the dog, especially when the Christian happens to be a brutal man who has just killed a beautiful "liked" (after getting her drunk) because he

young

girl

her.

A

his rights, a Christian should have and a dog should have his rights. All are God's even the dog. There are no heathens in the sight of the Almighty,

Turk should have

his rights children,

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

185

and no one but a bigot will claim that there are. God made all and evidently loves all. A Christian is just as good as a Turk or Jap when they all behave themselves, no better, no worse, and a dog is better than either when he behaves himself and the Christian, Turk and Jap, lie, steal, murder and debauch. The church influence is necesary in a high state of civilization, but it should be educative as well as refining.

At present

there

is

no church broad enough for

in-

telligent, progressive, thinking people to join, that I know of. Many such people belong to ,'our present

churches simply because they cannot do without the church influence even though it contains much that such people cannot accept, while there are many intelligent and moral people who never attend our present churches who would gladly frequent a church that did not teach salvation through ancient murder on the cross committed by brutal men and instigated by a traitorous man-made god who double-crossed his own son. We need a church that can and will collect the intelligent and thoughtful people together where they can work collectively for human betterment. Leaving the ignorant and superstitious alone in their present organizations until they progress out of them. If

such churches were properly started they would

draw heavily from

all existing churches, as well as from the ranks of non-church members, as a majority of people are intelligent and progressive under proper leadSuch people will not accept salvation through ership. any scheme or plan that does not include good thoughts, good acts and a pesistent striving to climb higher in morality, knowledge and usefulness. They expect salvation through evolution as a tree or flower grows to perfection; as a child grows from helplessness to strength ;

and beauty. Such is the road to heaven and the only road by which it can be reached. All other roads lead to failure.

186

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

a church of the people. A church that scatters knowledge, teaches duty and gives pleasure, while advising temperance in all things, a church of common

We need sense.

No one has a moral right to say that he or she is a Christian or is not a Christian until they have thoroughly read and sudied the Bible and know of their own personal knowledge, gathered from research, thought and deep study of the Bible, as well as investigating- what others say of the Bible and Christianity- so they may weigh and consider in an impartial manner, regardless of their bringing up, of what their father thought, their mother thought or what anyone else thought. Thinking a thing does not necessarily make it a truth and we should be careful about accepting anything as truth that cannot be verified some other way than by ignorant prejudice. No one has a right to say that he is a Democrat or a Christian unless he can give a reasonable reason to himself for the assertion. He need not necessarily give anyone else a reason unless he cares to. The point is, we should be honest with ourselves and not fool ourselves or let people who are continually fooling themselves, fool us too. As a general rule I find that the persons I talk with on religious matters who say the most emphatically that they believe in the Bible* every word of it, are the people that know the lease of the Bible, of the words of the Bible. They have read it the least and thought on it the least. All they know of it they have learned by others talk about it. And this is a poor wav to hearing learn about anything that is of such easy access as the Bible. The Bible should be studied by all as they would study a school book and before they do this no one but an insane person has a right to say he believes in the Bible. But most Christians do it. I

am

certain that

God and

I

have a stronger healthier

Jesus, than any pale faced traded "religious belief" for gold. in

man who

belief

ever

POEMS

BE RELIGIOUS, TRULY SO Look for God in everything; Countless worlds His praises sing Not in church and books alone, Authors of which are unknown. Let no man-made god or creed, Sway your judgment like a reed;

Let no priest or prophet bold, Trade religion for your gold.

He who

peddles sacred things,

For the little coin it brings, Should be shunned by all mankind,

As

a robber of the blind.

We're not here for God to curse, Make your church the Universe.

"He Who

notes the sparrows Surely will regard us all.

fall,"

Let the simple have their creeds, their prayers and count their beads, Hug a charm or worship Sun Time will broaden everyone.

Say

;

Superstitions are for those In their infant mental clothes; Have compassion for their view, Something grander beckons you.

Be religious, truly so, Worship where the lilies grow, 'Mid the fields and forest trees;

Words

of God, are all of these.

IS

188

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

WHEN

JESUS DIED ON CALVARY

When Jesus cried on Calvary "My God, my God, Oh, why hast Thou forsaken me ?" He sent a shudder down through time, Together with a thought sublime, And men will pause to hear it told, To hang their heads in shame, in deep disgrace, Because of crime, stupendous crime,

On

Calvary, in olden time,

Committed by the human

race.

The wail of one who suffered so, At hands of brutal men, who dealt A death by hands of demons blind

A

living death for

vicious blow.

a, ;

one so kind.

While all above seemed black as night, There on the cross 'twixt life and death he hung; And all below, for him was worse, High heaven seemed this man to curse, While from the cross his body swung. Taunted by jeers of men who hate Of low-born men, his God did seem So helpless, and forlorn, in pain,

A

to approbate.

target for the rude, insane.

And all for what? Because he loved. He never paused to count the cost, He gave us all that he could give No grander man on earth could live. To him it seemed that all was lost. ;

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE:

IS

189

And

then the cry, pathetic plea: God, "My my God, Oh why hast Thou forsaken me?" That awful cry, that did immortalize a crime

That killed a man just in his prime. While brother men his blood did spill, He seemed to little care, for earthly rod. He ask not why the punishment From earth below, to him was sent, But why the lack of thought, by God.

Then came the cry of wounded love, From troubled soul below, unto his God above. One prayer, one question then had he, Just one heartbreaking thought and plea; All other torment seemed as naught. No earthly hurt caused him to pray; This was the thorn that did chastise. He thinks of God alone, and dies And goes to God, e'en though He slay.

He

ne'er complained of mortal pain, Because of wounds, of loss of friends, or And while he suffered all, unmoved, He saw not why his God approved His awful fate and suffering.

men

profane.

Just as his spirit poised to take its flight, He thought his God did him forsake. Then from the heart about to break, cry from out the darkest night.

A A

troubled world in agony, Repeats the cry on Calvary: "My God, My God, Oh why hast Thou forsaken me?" A pause, and from infinity, To vibrate through eternity, The echo comes, and in its train We hear the answering refrain: "Forsaken me Forsaken me My People hath forsaken Me." !

!

IS

190

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

THE HOUSE OF GOD The house

of

God

is

open

air

And every day the time for prayer, One constant and intense desire To do our best and climb up higher. Those

piles of timber, brick

and stone

Were built by man for man alone God needs no houses such as these ;

Man

builds, himself alone to please.

Jesus preached, where e'er he chanced to be, On mountain top or near the sea, To beggar, prince, or those who'd care To hear him in the open air. In synagogues he'd talk as well

Most any place he'd stop to tell The story of his trip to earth,

To preach

to

man

of second birth.

He warned 'gainst mansions here below, He scorned the use of wealth for show, And were he here, he would condemn Our

present churches, most of them.

I'm sure that he would advocate church of man right down to date Where things worth while are daily told Instead of fairy tales of old.

A

;

THE WORD OF GOD The word of God is all creation, The Universe true revelation; And day by day, as time goes by

Proclaims the will of Him on high. No human book or speech could tell The power of God one half so well.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

191

of God is everywhere, In every flower and stone, On land, in sea and in the air;

The word

God speaks in works To all but bigot with

alone, creed,

his,

A

universal language grand, all mankind can see and read, And reading, understand.

So

Oh, superstitious ignorance,

The world's

colossal curse,

You haunt our thoughts, contract our souls And dwarf our concept of the Universe.

STAND ERECT Stand

erect, for all is well;

God is not God if there's a hell. Then stand erect, look straight ahead with thoughts above, is not God. if He is not Love. Cower not before the throne Of man-made god or priestly drone.

For God

Stand

erect, salute

on high

The Unknown God beyond the sky. Go straight to God, Himself, in thought, What mortals tell of God, you count as naught. Let no priest's or preacher's shadow dim Your rays of love that come from Him. For He who guides the flight of birds, Will guide our steps, and not by words. He speaks to us more positive ;

Through conscience He

will daily give,

Instructions that are understood all a striving to be good.

By

IS

192

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

GOD'S If

HOLY DAY

God had meant some

special

day

For us to keep on earth, He'd call a halt in everything, In death as well as birth. let a child be born, Or let a human die, sacred day He set apart

He'd never

On

For

us-

to

pray and sigh.

He'd never let the buds on trees Develop into bloom, He'd never let the grasses grow On day of priestly gloom He'd never let the birdies sing ;

Upon

his holy day,

He'd never let them build a nest, He'd make them kneel and pray. He'd never

let the sun shine bright gentle breezes blow, He'd make the day as dark as night So nothing then could grow, He'd fix it so we'd understand And so we'd have to rest, He'd make it known throughout the land The day that he had blest

And

He would have told his "only To keep the Sabbath day,

son,"

In language so that not a one Could ever go astray. For Jesus seemed not to have known Of God's most holy day, Because he never did postpone

His work, and stop

to pray.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

neighbors ox was in the mire He'd help him then and there, While never stopping to inquire, What day; he did not care. The Pharisees would Jesus slap For Sabbath work he did, But Jesus never cared a rap If

How much

they closed the

God's Holy Day,

The Sabbath Thought out by For

is

lid.

every day;

a pious fraud, priestly man, is

Himself, not God, to laud. profit, power, wordly gain,

A child of superstition and its mates. Jesus never taught such nonsense, But was murdered by it's advocates.

PRESUMPTIOUS MORTALS Think ye not that God created This Universe and all therein, For the express purpose that you, a weakling, Might err and then confess: your sin; Be redeemed by the slaughter of God's only Son, Who ne'er committed wrong,

And through

his pain as pure as drifted snow, then pass on to God again.

Be made

And

How

presumptious mortal man can be contemplating immortality.

When

******

God is God, then his commands must be obeyed. The most important seems us all to bind And elevate, though far away we've strayed. Real piety is only shown in service for mankind. If

193

IS

194

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

RELIGION All religions teach some truth, every one deceives, For they are nothing more than this

And

What mortal man believes. And men are wrong more times Are ever

When The

right,

by

:

than they

far,

about some god; has past proved they are. telling us

No

mortal man can comprehend God's Body or His Mind And when a mortal says he can, ;

You'll find

him

mental, blind;

A silly weakling boasting some, A man who reason kills, Who makes a living by his wits, While you

just

pay

his bills.

Revealed religion comes from dreams, Vague dreams' of little worth A poor foundation for belief Of anything on earth. A true religion will be based On day light, wakeful thought, Instead of on some misty dream, A drowsy brain has caught. ;

THE CHRISTIAN PADLOCK. In any Christian Nation, where you may chance to roam You'll find the Christian padlock to guard the Christian

home.

And

not from foreign heathens, not much, at any rate But from the Christian product of that same Christian State.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

"THE FALL OF MAN" Some

forty centuries ago, poet thought he'd like to know Just why the human race should be In want, in sin, in misery.

A

about him seemed to say, have gone astray. All else, save man, it seems to me,

For

all

Man sometime must

Is universal

harmony.

While man in discord, seems to grow, God surely did not make him so.

Man

has fallen, no other way cause what we all see to-day.

To

For God Himself would never will This earth to be, then straightway It full of want and misery, To last throughout eternity.

fill

The pious poet thought it out, To him it seemed without a doubt, That nothing but the "fall of man" Could interfere with God's great plan.

He placed his thoughts on parchment To which we now pay mental toll, Those ancient thoughts are naught but

A

part of Bible Genesis.

While

later poets tried to save

Humanity from endless grave, Caused by the ancient poet's plan: The visionary "fall of man." Naught, but a saviour seemed to be, The way to save humanity. Poetic nothingness, the scheme, Just resting on a poets dream;

scroll

this:

195

IS

196

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

For dozing mortals to partake, Not for the living, wide awake. For lazy minds that dare not think, For cowards too, who dodge and blink.

The

rise of man, a thought sublime. Inspiring hope throughout all time. The "fall of man," there's nothing worse, Depressing thought, a man-made curse

That 'round our necks the dead have hung,

The

tune, poetic ancients sung,

And we unthinking chant the song, And thereby aid a common wrong.

How

foolish we, to thus

presume

And through

the ages, scatter gloom. The rise of man, a thought sublime The "fall of man," religious crime. ;

THE MAN WITH A PRAYER and

THE MAN WITH AN OATH The

God

one God, not three, six or seven. on earth as much as in heaven He's God of the Heathen, the Christian, the Jew, He's God of all men that God ever knew.

He

real

is

lives here

;

He did not establish a church with a creed, He knows what we want and he knows what we need. Our prayers never move Him towards us, one mite, They lift but ourselves towards God and the right While some may not know it, He's God in His place And what men "believe," does not alter the case.

He

brings us on earth and he passes us on, Everything moves, whether we're here or gone.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

The Heathen and

197

Christian are treated the same play the same game; The sunshine and rain are showered on both, The man with a prayer and the man with an oath.

Born

And

;

alike, die alike,

he

is a bigot, unworthy God's love, thinks himself chosen as God's little dove, The man with, a prayer and the man with an oath Are truly God's children; it's a matter of growth.

Who

THE CROSS A

Symbol

of a Crime.

Just think of Jesus as a man And that is quite enough. man of men red-blooded men, That brutes once handled rough.

A

A man who

tried to aid

mankind

And show them

greater worth. man, just man, most noble man; The grandest man of earth.

A

And

not as god, a man-made god, asked his Father why; prayed to God with his last breath, hopelessly did cry, And asked God why He should forsake His faithful son so weak. For those were words of man alone No God such words would speak.

Who Who Who

Twas

man, not God upon the cross That hung forlorn and sad. For God, of God, would never ask

Why

God, forsaken had. For us to think that it was God, Belittles God on high, To let his creatures murder Him

And

cause

Him

thus to cry.

IS

198

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

we

While Jesus

too,

And

power

kill his

slander much,

for

good

the thinking ones of earth. Believe, they never could, That through the blood of Gods we mount, To homes up in the sky,

Among

That God must kill another God, Or else we all must die.

that asks or would accept Another one to die, To pay in full your sinful debts While you in comfort lie, Is selfish thought of lowest grade, Is cowardly as well, Will hold you down from heavens gates Will draw you nearer hell.

The thought

For

if

Your

you would not gladly give life

or part of

it,

You should not selfishly expect To take a benefit As roman soldiers did of old. From death they asked for pay, By casting lots for raiment worn, You ask for more than they. You

ask,

and claim, eternal

bliss,

Through death of murdered man. The Romans got just all they could, You're getting all you can. Now he who would accept or ask, So much through awful crime, Could* not be worthy of the gift, Of bliss throughout all time.

,

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

199

tell you that it is God's plan, That murder should be done, So you may go to God in blood Of pure and holy one.

They

They

lie

And you

to you, they slander

God,

believe because

They caught you young, they warped your mind, With lies about God's laws.

And you

believe, yes,

you believe

'Cause Mother told you

And who

so.

Mother pray, Her Mother, yes I know. told

I

ask?

Who told Mothers' Mothers' Mother Way down the distant past? Some

priest, of ancient brutal time,

We've traced

it

down

For error started

at last.

will attach

And

gather as it goes The dust of ages, mental dust, And thus the error grows. While you accept it without thought, From unlearned ancient time,

From one who

When

lived

on mental mould,

thinking was a crime.

And you accept because with ease, You see a lazy way To enter heaven, leaving debts For some one else to pay. Just load your sins, a billion sins, On back of man so true Your brutal man-made god did kill, To furnish blood for you.

IS

200

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

Oh, heathen Christians, stop and think, Just read your "book of books," Just read its pages through and through,

And then see how it looks To you in light of modern

thought, Dealt out by reasons hand, Instead of sucking mental milk Of ancient scapegoat brand.

Salvation coming though good works, By knowledge gained and such, By good deeds done for other men;

Take some but give them much Of lifes best things while here on

And

earth,

this will save

your soul; For evolution is God's plan By which you reach your goal.

Quit trying hard to something get For which you do not give

An

equal portion in return,

Which is no way to live. By praying some and harder work, This, you to God will link, And not through blood of murdered one Most awful thought

Your

You

to think.

selfishness will

weigh you down,

never can progress

Until you offer up yourself To others in distress; Upon the cross of blood and tears

There nailed with iron pins, Yourself to suffer and to die For other peoples' sins.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

did not write "The Word of of priestly man,

God

God"

'Twas work

Who

wrote the book and then he said: is God's holy plan." First holy man, then "fall of man" Then holy birth of man, To save us all from certain death, "This,

Then holy murder

plan.

That ancient mother was misled, lie came down through time, fed upon gross ignorance,

The And

On

mental slime, fooled the ancient mother then,

silly

They

Who

dared not reason much, She feared the stake that always burned, For reason, thought and such.

A

man-made

That

priests

Christian god

we

have,

have made alone.

And when we

try to free ourselves,

The priests will loudly moan. The priests their daily bread receive From superstitious wrong, Of course they'll fight if we should try

To

stop their ancient song.

They say

that

we

the devil serve,

While they are pure as snow,

And

holy as an angel is That all should see and know. But just the same, you mark my word, They'll make you pay them well, While coaxing you with heaven's prize, And scaring you with hell. ;

201

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

IS

202

An

A

ancient way of robbing men, graft as old as time ;

give you nothing for your gold But story of a crime. They dare not let you think and read, They know you'll learn too much. They cause your mind to lean upon

They

Their

little

And you

mental crutch.

a slave, a mental slave,

Are loyal as a dog; While round about you they

A

fearful

will chant

mental fog.

And make you

think that you are you from them do stray, They'll ex-communicate you then;

lost,

If

You'll start for hell that day.

We To

know

just

why

the priests

made

hell

send you there to stay,

If their religion

you refuse

And them refuse To them it is a

to pay. business scheme They've got to live or die And they had rather trade "belief" ;

Than work and sweat and

sigh.

you should quit your trading gold For their religious thought, The priests would have to go to work And pay for what they bought. Their coaxing you and scaring you, Just makes them mental boss; It makes you weak financially They fatten on your loss. If

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

But then, you

And

too,

would have

really think quite deep

to

work,

;

With your religious canned goods gone, You'd miss your mental sleep. Much work and thought, on your own part This lazy system saves. The living is by dead men ruled, While lying in their graves.

Some Are

priests are saintly sacrificing too;

and

refined,

Intimidated by the church, "They know not what they do." While many more are hyprocites, Not serving man at all; They teach no truth, but error spread That causes men to fall.

the cross above their heads, symbol of a crime, And falsely teach us to approve

They hold

A

Of murder, as sublime. They juggle with a mystery; The victim's sacred name The priests absurdly hide behind;

On

God, they place the blame.

Oh, woe unto ye hypocrite,

Ye modern publican, Ye pharisee and scribes that And cause the "fall of man," Instead of By honest You bribe You teach

sit

causing him to rise thought and work; him with a tinsel prize,

him how

to shirk.

203

IS

204

You And

teach

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE? him that by eating

drinking That he'll be

flesh

human blood, made as pure and

As snow compared

fresh

with mud.

Such "sacred" trash must we all shun, look on God on high As far too good and wise a One

And To

utter such a

lie.

A FRIEND HAS GONE A

friend has gone, has passed away, left his earthly home of clay. He took a road we all must take And in a better world awake. While we in error say: he died; He drifted on the ebbing tide, Far out upon the sea of life Beyond th e reach of earthly strife.

Has

Where

peace and rest from worldly jars Will soothe his soul beyond the stars. We should not cast a shadow grim By thoughts of sorrow here for him Across the path that he must tread, The path of those whom we call dead For thoughts are things, both light and dark That fly like arrows to a mark.

Send thoughts

of

gladness then to him,

Instead of sadness that will dim

And

cloud his mental atmosphere, should send him kindly cheer. too will soon be passing on, Just stop to rest and then we're gone.

We We

all

While unattended we must go Just when, or where,

we never know.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

And, as on earth, we came alone From out the vast, to us, unknown, The road from life to life is dim, We shut our eyes and trust in Him, While silently, alone we tread The road that's traveled by the dead. Just why 'tis so, we do not know, We only know we come and go.

While death spreads lonesomeness behind,

We

all

should bravely bear in mind,

While setting sun to us seems night And death seems like day's fading light To him beyond, the absent one, Death,

is

the rising of the sun to our goal the soul. ;

The road we travel The resurrection of

;

TRANSIENT Every thing

is

transient,

Especially the wrong; For every thing in time to come, Will then have moved along.

Our

present ills and pleasures, In time will pass away And be among the dead and gone Of ancient yesterday.

But while our pleasant neighbors In time will

all

be gone,

The bad For

can't stay so very long time just moves them on.

These facts should make us patient; Should make us more content, To try and do the best we can With what to us is sent.

205

IS

206

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

Now

while we are a-moving soon we will be gone, should be moving upward, As well as moving on.

And

We

DEATH All

life is spirit

IS

BIRTH

shining through

And animating The body never

clay; really lives,

Must therefore pass away. Our mortal eyes cannot behold The new-born one from earth The part of death we see and know, ;

Is but the afterbirth.

The pallid cheek, the glassy eye, The struggle and the groan The awful lonesome feeling then, ;

When we

have

The overcoat

lost,

our own.

the spirit wore,

Lies crumpled at our feet;

The

never dies meet,

spirit lives, it

In future

all will

We

should not superstitious be let our reason reign And sterilize the coat with fire, ;

Should

For everybody's gain. Tis better for us left behind,

And those of higher birth, As well as helping Nature some To purify the earth.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

While death

to

207

us seems misery,

Our

vision is not keen 'Tis but the shadow' that ;

The substance For death

is

is

we

see

unseen.

birth to higher life;

The spirit passes on To broader spheres of usefulness The real has come and gone. Yes, death

But good

And we

is

hard for us

for those

who

;

stay,

who

go, should calm our grief and say:

will be done," You know. For death is but an incident Of life, which is supreme; And death is not a conqueror, But ending of earth's dream.

"Thy

Presumptious then, for wisest man To criticise, though weakling would; The fact that death is for us all, Is proof

enough, that death

is

good.

The Sun in time, will pass away, The stars will glow and then decay, While doom, on earth will place For none, but spirit, is the real.

its

seal;

HEATHENS. Not

all

of the heathens are out of the church

Nor all of the saints within, Some use the church as a cloak to hide

Many

a

mammoth

sin.

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

IS

208

WHITHER, WHENCE AND WHY? Where

What

We

did are

we come from and where do we go, we here for, does any one know?

come with a cry and

leave with a groan, nowhere, at least the unknown. We frolic some, sob some, and then we are gone. We bring nothing, take nothing when we pass on Excepting experience gathered while here, A thing of great value for which we pay dear.

From nothing

to

;

so much error, injustice and strife, must endure in such a short life? There must be a reason just why this is so, But I must confess that I really don't know.

Oh,

We

why

all

One moment happy, the next moment sad, One moment good and the next moment bad. One moment haughty, the next moment plead, Now we have plenty and then we're in need. religions and all of them right, us believe so, their advocates fight, While each are the chosen of gods they have made; All others are heathens they're privileged to raid. Some leave a record of blood in their trail, While some murder truth and science assail, Some are the weed of conceit gone to seed, Some crush out others while some themselves bleed.

So many

To make

Your reason, they tell you, just lay it aside The book which we give you must be the real guide. If we ask for some proof to show they are right, They're up and a coming already to fight. Each true to the teachings received when a child; Whether Christian or Jew or Hottentot wild ;

And

scorning

all

For they know

other beliefs as quite

it all,

that

is all

that's

vile,

worth while.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

209

They tell us to bow down in front of their god Or they'll wish us in jail, or under the sod, They coax us with heaven and threaten with hell, Till just

How How

what

little

to

do then one hardly can

we know and how

little

we

tell.

need.

great our presumption, colossal our greed There's good in the bad and there's bad in the best And those that are left are about like the rest. ;

INSPIRATION "The

Spirit of God" is moving to-day O'er the waters of thought, in a wonderful way. Now "Let there be light," is His modern command, And true inspiration appears in our land

With heavenly

earth life, a-coming to stay, are as willing to work as to pray. Our days will be grander than ancient grand days, If we will interpret and follow God's ways. If all

We've

Who

We

fallen in error, where teachers have led, gave us a stone when we asked them for bread sought for the truth but they gave us a lie,

And now

they must suffer, their error must

die,

So the light of God's truth may shine here again And thaw out the hearts of uncivilized men; The Almighty's Hand will be thrust from on high To tear down the cobwebs that clutter our sky.

The cobwebs of custom, the cobwebs of thought, The dust catching cobwebs religion has taught The mental obstructions that lie in our road, The sins of the dead that add much to our load, He'll wash from our earth by a grand mental flood ;

And not by the shedding of By armies of angels to show For God, of high heaven,

is

innocent blood; us the way, with us to-day.

;

210

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

THE AVERAGE MAN When common, man

is

prospering,

He's then a most important thing; But when he's down and out, he's then The most abused of luckless men.

When

My

he's

on top

intellect

he'll strut

made me

this

and say:

way;

But when

he's underneath he'll groan: "If I could get just one small loan."

When he has power He does not think

to do some good of things he should, But mostly of himself he thinks, At higher things he simply blinks.

Conceited, proud, and cruel too,

A-doing what

all

selfish do,

Until misfortune knocks him out And makes him then begin to doubt. Self confidence begins to go As hard becomes his row to hoe;

Conceit and cruelty depart And leave him with a better heart.

But generally too late to see Things as they really ought to be Alas, too late for him to do The things he once had power to.

;

His hellplessness and poverty

Are fine to make him really see. But should he chance to rise again He'd likely not remember then.

The more we have, the more we know The better then we all should grow, The less conceited we should be The greater our prosperity.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

WHAT'S THE USE? Sometimes

I

think

it is

no use

To strive for things up high That we should try to be content With things that near us lie. Like Solomon of old, sometimes It really looks to me, That everything is foolishness,

That

"all is vanity".

For often do we make a mess While trying hard to rise

;

And many times I am in doubt, Which course was really wise.

When

e'er I start to

study hard

Just to improve my mind, And over-do a little mite, then I'm nearly blind.

Why

What

knowledge I have gained overshadowed tall By injured health and uselessness, little

Is

Which makes me But

feel so small.

this may be the thing indeed That's best for me to know;

Use temperance

Make

in everything; haste by going slow.

For he who claims

all,

vanity

Condemns himself in turn, And anyone who knows it all, Has little chance to learn.

211

IS

212

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE r

YOU'LL NEVER SAY GOOD-BYE TO YOURSELF You'll never say good-bye to yourself, Where ever you go you'll be, And carry a record of all your acts Plain for yourself to see. You'll never be saying good-bye to your God, For you are a part of Him,

A

God Himself weak and dim.

mortal image of

An image

so

But you may become an image An image as bright as day,

grand,

Instead of an image as black as night

That

lusts to

maim and

slay.

You'll never be fooling yourself or God. Though others may blinded be, You'll carry a record upon your soul

So plain

for

your God to

see.

You're building a record while on your way No saviour can change, or will A record that blood will not erase, No matter how much you spill. A record that nothing but your own love, Will ever correct, in time, For no one can save you but yourself By turning away from crime. ;

You'll never progress and be like God, as you're fearing truth, as you cling to musty lies

As long As long

That warped your trusting youth. You'll never be saying good-bye to yourself,

Wherever you go

And

you'll be,

carry a record of what you are,

So God and you

may

see.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

STARE DECISIS Stare Decisis, looking backward 'Tis a good thing now and then, ;

But

'tis

dangerous and foolish

In the hands of shallow men.

Always turning to the ancient, Old and musty makes him meek; Has to look up other judgments 'Fore he even dares to speak.

Turns his back upon the future, Overlooks the present need, Stare Desisis

;

retrograder, is your creed.

Anti-progress

Had

the

Done

men you

claim to follow

same as you today, Little progress we'd be making In an onward, upward way. the

Progress glances backward only, Just enough to scan the past, To avoid mistakes and blunders, Taking care/ they do not last.

Xow

this thing of doing something Just because 'twas done before, Does not seem a proper reason

Why we What

all

should do

it

o'er.

the judges of the past said Should be sifted, weighed and heard, As an aid to present judgment, Never as the final word.

213

IS

214

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

THE DESERT WILD deserts wild I love to stray, pitch my tent at close of day Beside the trail that led me there, And spend the night just anywhere Where all is barren, vast and grand, The ancient, dreaded desert land.

Through

And

;

I love to watch the curling smoke Ascend and spread like branching oak,

From

campfire built so hastily;

There muse of past and is-to-be, As dying embers fade away,

And

slowly turn to ashes gray.

desert wild of man's affairs sa full of tares, Where human buds so pure and sweet Are crushed beneath the vilest feet, Where lust, the serpent in disguise, Haunts brilliant caves where virtue dies.

The

Is city street

Where roams the wolf of usury, While seeking prey eternally; The greatest curse of modern time, Producing want as well as crime, His food is blood, and tears his drink, His weapons, common pen and ink. Where one

On

will lose his

way and

lie

desert sand to groan and die, thousand souls worse fate will meet In waves of sin of city street; In ebb and flow of human crime, Upon the shore of earthly Time.

A

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE r

IS

BABY BLOSSOM Little

cherub here on earth,

Through

a process

Hand

Fresh from

Proud am

we

"

call birth,

that

is Divine, you're partly mine.

I

Baby Blossom, flower of love, Wafted here from up above;

Ray

of light from Spirit

Greater blessing there

Sun;

is

none.

From the reservoir of life, To this never ending strife Came from out the vast unknown, Not

forever, just a loan.

As

the

moments come and

go,

Like the lillies you will grow, Blossom, bloom, then wither, go; Where, oh where, we do not know.

Gold and silver, diamonds too, Are but trash compared with you. And we all wish you to know,

You

are welcome, doubly so.

While Count Carry While

you journey on your way, as holy every day. out the Golden Rule you tarry here in school.

All are here to learn and grow, we are we do not know. should do the best we can

Why We To

uplift

our fellow-man.

When we

give a helping hand, begin to understand And we rise above the sod, In our searching after God.

We

215

IS

216

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

THE LOST MINE. Sitting by the cheery camp old miner tells the tale

fire,

Ye

Of the Mono

cement mine

lost

'Tis a story never stale.

How

they found it, how they lost In the early days of gold, This enchanted treasure story By the miners often told.

it

And to hunt this nature treasure, Men are lured from year to year, To the high Sierra mountains For the native gold so

dear.

Some

fable,

will say that

Others say that

And

will tell

Found

true how the trav'lers

it

you

it is

is

the mine while passing through.

How

the three who made the journey, Sole survivors of their train

That was killed by savage Redmen For revenge as well as gain,

How

they rested in the mountains, the rock they took along, On their weary western journey; Ancient pioneers so strong.

Found

How

misfortune overtook them, to hover ever nigh One with broken leg they left there, In the forest wild to die. Later on another sickened,

Seemed

Stopped to rest and

;

still is there the third in desperation, Stumbled on, he knew not where.

And

;

IS

How On

a

How

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

time his journey ended California ranch, his story started men out,

in

Searching mountain, gorge and branch, he had the rock to prove it But his steps would not retrace, How he made a map for others,

How

Told them where

to find the place.

How, in later years two partners Thought they found this mine again, Quarreled, fought, and one was murdered, Then the other went insane. Lost again this ancient treasure

;

But each year mien still pursue; Winter snows will end the searching,

Summer

thaws, the search renew.

Up among

the "lodge pole" pine trees, the skeleton was found, Near the trees in cluster growing Is supposed to be the ground Of the Mono lost cement mine;

Where

Mine of mines, yet mystery For so many people searching; Ancient mine of tragedy. In the waterfall, the spirit the dead man who was found the foot of Mammoth mountain, Dwells by day the year around,

Of At

But when evening shadows gather O'er the trees with ancient mark on, You can hear a wail and moaning And the stoutest heart will hearken.

217

218

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

A MISTAKE Since

boy could talk, understand, They taught him love of gun. Before he hardly learned to walk They thought it grand, To see him shoot in fun. first their little

And

They taught him guns were made

to

kill.

Unknowingly, stifled the superb, in his mind they did instill

They

And

The cruelty That now they try

He

to curb.

took his gun to bed at night

And dreamed of wrong; Of shooting birds so small, That stopped to rest while on their

He He

killed

He saw

stilled their

them one and

a deer before

And

him

all.

start

stop in fright.

With joy he drew

And

song;

his

gun

sent a bullet through Oh, happy night;

its

Great laurels he had won.

heart

flight;

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

CHRISTMAS TIME

A common

thing this time

o'

year

To

see so many full of cheer. It seems a shame to mar our feast

By

killing

any harmless

beast.

had power to will it so harmless creatures go As pleasure I abhor to- build On flesh, the blood of which Pve If I

I'd let all

;

spilled.

Then just extend the noble plan, Of "peace on earth, god will to man;"

We

should include the beast below; this will help our spirits grow.

For

Just treat as sacred all of life, help to stay the butchers knife With no one eating slaughtered food We'll rise above surroundings crude.

And

;

Our race will come to it in time, As we progress away from crime. Posterity will stand aghast, our age the "bloody past."

And name

now and then, brutes, as well as men But 'tis uncivilized and crude To use their bodies then for food.

may

It

To

If

kill

be proper

dumb

men have

souls surviving death,

Then animals you may depend Have just the same, of lower kind,

A

life,

a soul that doth ascend.

;

219

220

IS

For

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE:

life is

soul and nothing more,

Just soul a-moving

And when The

lifeless clay.

the soul leaves, all is gone body's part is death, decay.

;

Then men should pause and think awhile Before they use a gun or knife To slaughter just because they can, Their fellow travelers of It

life.

seems a shame that men

And spend Without Without

a

little

can't

go

time in play,

their guns and fishing rods, their instruments to slay.

Oh, brutal, selfish men of earth, kill and torture to the quick; Now if your God were much like you, He'd kill you just to see you kick.

Why

1

What sympathy can you expect When out with gun or fishing rod, When meeting with an accident, For help, how could you look to God? The God who made these creatures Some other purpose they must fill Than just to die; their souls depart E'en though

Your

it

gives you, joyous

too,

thrill.

false religion teaches you,

That you are privileged blood to spill; 'Twas made by other brutal men Who loved to torment and to kill.

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

IS

221

THE BIGOT what were animals made

Pray,

not for

If

me

for,

to eat?

And why were pretty flowers made? To crush beneath my feet.

Why

vast creation, not for me alone? I not all important, Unto the great Unknown? all this

If

Am I

know

A

I

am, unto myself,

wonder

to behold Importance is my essence You're dull to need be ;

told.

THE COWARD You

take the life you cannot give, brutes that do no ill, When all the odds are on your side,

From

You wade

right in

I'm sure the Lord

is

and

kill.

proud of you

;

The Lord who made us all, Who knows our every thought and

Who

notes our rise or

fall.

Just stop and think a moment, man, And tell us why you, are? What purpose in your being here On earth to kill and mar?

act

222

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

WHERE THE GOLDEN Way

POPPIES GROW.

out in Californ'a

Where the Golden poppies grow Where the winter sun is shining And the hills are all aglow To the land of orange blossoms There

is

where

I

long to go.

When the eastern snow California is calling Then my

heart begins

is

its

falling

yearning

And my thoughts are ever turning To the land I love the best To the sunshine of the west.

LAND OF WINTER SUNSHINE At the foot of Signal Mountain Mighty things are being done,

Man

'gainst adverse

Nature fighting,

Victories are being won. In a land of winter sunshine, On the plains of little rain, Men are carving out an empire 1

Turning barrenness

to gain.

Like sphinx old Signal Mountain Towers high above it all, Watching ever o'er the valley As its fortunes rise and fall. And if mountains could but tell us

Of the dim

an' distant past

What

an interesting story This would be from first to

last.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

Of

the magic transformation In this California Nile, What a contrast from the present

Was

that prehistoric while.

Strewn with

shells

and human

relics

Of a long forgotten age, Mute reminders of the ancient; Of its hist'ry but a page.

Once an arm of old Pacific, Severed by a bar of sand, Then the waters slowly vanished Leaving there a barren land.

Many mounds

beside the trail there Tell a tale of death by thrist; Lost their way mid sand and cactus, In this former land accurst.

Sloping gently to the northward Stretching far as one can see, Lies this land so vast and fertile Former land of mystery.

Modern homes

are springing up there, Future garden all will be As the farms increase in number On this bed of ancient sea.

Where by

gravity the waters

Of the Colorado flow, Never failing, but increasing As the crops begin to grow; In the

When

summer 'tis

is

highest all,

then decreases the summer turns to fall.

Gradually

As

it

needed most by it

223

224

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE *

And in case of drouth in Where dependence rests

future, in rain,

In less favored western sections, Egypt with the grain. That 'twill feed the hungry millions If there comes such time forlorn, Is as certain as the future From the present's being born. 'Twill be

AFTER THE WAR (In France)

After the war is over, boys, We'll all go home to stay To meet our friends and relatives And proudly hear them say: "You did the best that boys could do, You bravest of the brave, You saved our homes for all of us, You whipped the German knave." ;

But some of us

die to-day, boys,

Some of us die to-day, And someone will mourn

for us, boys,

Someone so far away. Come, let us be up at 'em, boys, And hurry this war along The sooner we end this awful strife, The sooner we'll right a wrong. ;

(Home Again) The wrong was

righted there in France, bravely toa for us, But we have never paid the boys

And

;

The boys the Germans cuss, Came limping home to homeless homes,

When

task

They saved But

was bravely done this land,

for each

;

not for themselves

wealthy one.

IS

And we

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE*

weep o'er unknown dead; tears are cheap. never see the living boys hobble, limp and creep. grand to be an unknown dead, all

Honor and

We

Who How

Forever dead, unnamed, How sad to be alive instead, Does no ona feel ashamed?

Not just ashamed to make us blush But shame that makes us give, Real thoughtful shame, that brings results,

That aids the boys to live; To get some honor, comfort

too,

Before they reach their grave;

The

justice that

we owe our

boys,

That we should give our brave.

We gave too much to profiteers, We're giving more to-day; That's why we cannot pay the boys

The Germans tried to slay. We've paid our debt to honored It cost

With low bowed head on

An

dead,

a tear or two, holiday,

easy thing to do.

Now

us pay our living boys, Just pay them now, to-day; By giving homes for saving homes, The only way to pay; By giving things to eat and wear let

And smooth their coming years. living we can never pay By holidays and tears.

The

225

IS

226

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

"THOU SHALT NOT Our Christian governments Are causing them to die,

And woe be unto

KILL."

of

men

citizens

Who

pause to ask them why. We fill the world with crippled men, And fill the ground with dead, While filling homes with aching hearts For those whose blood is shed. It should be our's, our total will, Yes, ours to reason why; As well as ours to pay the bill, As well as ours to die. No war should ever be declared Not voted on by all By men and women that will be Affected by the call. ;

LIVE AND

GROW

Sorrow broadens out the soul, While pleasure makes us vain, For troubles aid us to our goal,

We We

only learn through pain. burn a finger, then we know More than we did before, For pain will help us all to grow, To keep on knowing more. In time we'll know enough to aid

And

not to hinder so

Each other while through So all may live and grow.

life

we wade

;

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

BE CAREFUL

WHAT YOU THINK

Brutes, are made to growl and bite, rend, and kill their kind. But men, should cultivate and have,

To

A A

higher, broader mind mind to soar above our earth, Not dwell on, "me" and "mine," But think of love and things of worth, ;

To

think of things divine.

human beings then should be Forbearing, gentle, kind; Be always ready with their help, Their neighbors wound to bind. For never do we know how soon, We'll need some tender care All

;

Be laying low from accident, Or sicknes, so beware !

And when you have an unkind Just fight it down and take,

A

stronger hold on

life's

thought,

best things,

For your own welfare's sake. For if we do not radiate, What we ourselves would choose, We have no right to then expect,

The

things

For

evil

we thereby

thinking Eternity a toll

we

lose.

will pay,

;

For every evil thought scar upon the soul.

will leave,

A

devils we will know, that is to be, Will be bad thoughts of long ago, They'll haunt our harmony.

The only In

life

227

IS

228

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

We'll not be judged by deeds alone,

When

judged by One

For thought

who knows;

essence, action form From thought, the action grows. If we, the image, then would be, is

Of Him, who placed us here The Star of Love must guide our Must banish hate and fear.

;

;

The Are

only things in little

life,

acts of love

fate

;

worth while,

;

They cause us pleasure when we think They lift our souls above. If we are careful what we think, Our words will need no care,

;

And

all our actions they will be Quite proper, every where.

The men who shot our Presidents, Were not as much to blame, As those who generated thought, That prompted such a shame. So then be careful what you think, For what you think, you are, And every vicious thought you think, May travel on so far. Like slimy snakes, they'll move through space on, and on, they go They might have been pure doves of peace,

While

you had willed it so. Our thoughts will mingle with

If;

their kind,

For better or for worse, As on they roll, from mind to mind,

A

blessing or a curse.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

things of wonder we all see, things which man has wrought Are nothing more then echo's of,

The The

;

Accumulated thought. Just stored up thought the auto is: To you it may seem queer, A hundred thousand men or more Just thought the auto here.

For you and me, to have and use, By men before our time. For you and me, just you and me, While we, are thinking crime. For crime it is, to think of self, While babies cry for food, While mothers cry themselves to sleep Because they'r treated rude.

The

largest thoughts that one can think,

Are those of moral gold, Like those of usefulness to man, Like those of one of old. For if there'd been no kindly thought, Before we came on earth, No happiness to us would come A curse, would be our birth. ;

we enjoy the kindly thought The stored up thought we see Then we should be a-thinking thought If

To As

help posterity. well as thoughts of those to-day Less fortunate than we; Of crippled ones, and invalids, Of those in poverty.

229

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

IS

230

So

let

us

all,

just try

and do

What

little, each one can, To think good thoughts and kindly too; To help our fellow man. And have no wars, as we have had,

And

up no more men, care, from everywhere,

raise

With tender

To

fill

a slaughter pen.

Blind hero worship causes war.

We've honored brutes too long; Napoleon, Caesar and their kind, We've elevated wrong. We've taught our children that the man, In war who did not yield,

Was He

We

great, in ratio to the dead,

left

upon the

honor

field.

selfish business thought, not care,

By men who do

Who

try lik e gready swine to take, Their neighbors rightful share. We're teaching error right along, We cultivate the weed. We're teaching how to bow down low,

To

dollars

and

to greed.

We, caused the war, all men of earth, Our thoughts produced the crime, And made it possible to have The greatest War of time. Wrong thinking seed, we men have sown, For ages

in the past; is in

The harvest time

We're reaping now at

our day last.

IS

The The

fall

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

of

man

is

caused by thought

stones that help us sink By selfish thought, those awful thoughts, That man should blush to think. The past should cause us all to pause, And know the reason why sent our men to foreign lands,

We To

sacrifice

and

die.

Before world peace can e'er be won,

The people must be taught That far more vicious than

A

fool within a

With

A

a

gun

any brutal thought.

Is

lighted

magazine,

match may

loll,

fool with but a single thought,

May

cause a nation's;

The thought

that

fall.

comes but from the head

Is crippled at the start;

The grandest thought Is

A

prompted by the

that one can think

heart.

thought that causes godly work time or distance bars, It's words are shrill, like trumpet blast, Are heard beyond the stars.

No

Our And

We

sprit is a manuscript,

every thought we think, daily write as plain as we

Could write with pen and

ink,

Our words and acts recording here Upon our parchment scroll, The good, the bad, so God may see

A

record of our soul.

231

IS

232

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

And when we

pass to life beyond take but this alone, All other things, we leave behind;

We

For

sins

we must

atone,

And

take our place in life to According to our grade,

come

According to our thoughts and The record we have made.

YOU CAME TO Out

of the nowhere,

it

seemed

acts,

ME.

to

me,

You wandered home, just like it was to be. Like a stray moonbeam on a gloomy night You came, a ray of soothing light; To comfort me, believe and comprehend; To help me all you could and be a friend. To brighten up my earthly road, To lighten some my heavy load. I

needed you, your childish Jove and sympathy, I think that you girl must have needed me.

And you

I

love a

girl,

I

OH, SHUX. don't know why;

When she's away, I sigh and When she comes near, I feel so

sigh.

queer;

want to say: "I love you dear." want her for my own so bad;

I I

'Cause

am

I can't get her, I sad. to hold her tight and say: "I've got you .now, you'll have to Just fine, I think I'm getting on, I

want

I

look around, the girl

is

gone.

Another fellow caught her eye And she has left me high and dry.

stay."

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

TWO HEARTS A

little

loving

233

SO EASY WON.

now and then

Is just the thing for healthy men As well as women too, indeed, It seems to be the thing they need,

As much

as food and clothes to wear given on the square. Yet awful things the lovers do, When you and I are not the two.

When

it

is

While

in the

shadow

of the door

He

gently gave her one She thot: "That's fine, I'd like some more/'

He thot: "I've just begun." Two souls who'd rather not Two hearts so easy won.

How

To

heavenly

it

seems

to

get caught;

them,

other people fun.

To meet and part, and meet again; To take her in your arms and then Oh, well I can't explain it all; You'll know in time, don't let her fall. The greatest pleasure that we know; All normal people think it so; When happening to be the two Engaged in that which we all do.

TO LOVE To

IS

TO SUFFER.

love is to suffer, to live is to die; In a world of pleasure there's many a sigh. When the lips of true love, and passion once meet, Then must the bitter soon follow the sweet. WTiile making more perfect, real love from the heart, Yet passion, of true love is only a part. \Vhen love meets love, the result is sublime; But loveless passion is nothing but crime.

IS

234

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

WHEN

SHE'S

NOT TRUE.

When

she goes wrong, when she's not true him, as well as others too

To

;

She'll

She'll

work him for some lead him on and on

presents, ;

Until he's out of patience Until his money's gone. She'll try to make him think that she Just loves him more and more, And that he is her only beau. The Httle flirt, she's got 'em by the score. ;

AWFUL When

people get

mushy and

start in to

woo

Engage in the loving that all of us do, Then others will snicker, or gossip or scold, Condemning such actions as silly or bold.

How base and degrading to others it seems, When free from the charmer: young love

and

its

dreams, How easy it is to be virtuous then, For unhealthy women an' defective men.

While they may be virtuous* so is a post; For love never tempts any dead and gone ghost. Love means to many, what sun means to mould; It withers and blights, like too hot or too cold. Be full-blooded mortals, act sane and sincere; Love while you'r living, or staying down If you cannot enjoy, let others alone; Each for his own sins, in time will atone.

My, but

How

its

here.

nice to be one of the two!

seems if it's just me and you For then we would never, no never get through How awful it is, when it's some other two. fine

it all

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

235

CAMPING OUT. Now

here

we

lie, all in a heap try our best to go to sleep. skeeters bite us on the nose,

And

The The centipedes, they chew our toes, The wood-ticks burrough in our hide, The fleas roam 'round from side to side. The

gnats, they live behind our ears, Bathe in our eyes and bring the tears; While bugs just frolic o'er the dome Through hair that would not know a comb. We pull the kivvers o'er our heads And dream of home and better beds.

While

just before the peep o'day, Mosquitoes, gnats and bugs go 'way, The flies then come to take their place,

Our

patience gone,

we

from grace,

fall

Forget religion while we swear We'll never camp again, not there.

We

get up cross -and then begin

The morning meal to store within Though smoked, and burned, and full Is all the

To

be alive

It

makes

of sand

grub but my, it's grand and eat that meal, life really,

truly real.

TWO DOGS THAT

I

KNOW

Snowball and Lucky are dogs that I know, They'r neighbors of ours, next week they will go. Just moving away to a town further on; I'm sure we'll be missing them, when they are gone. Snowball

is smallish and curly and white, Physically speaking, he's what you call light.

Lucky

He

is

tallish

and bony and rough

looks like a dog that could run a big bluff.

236

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

They often come over to see us awhile; To see them performing would cause you Snowball

to smile.

trying to scratch on the sill While Lucky stands looking and barks with a will. is

They'll wait and they'll listen, and look at the door, Then after a moment they'll try it all o'er. Their heads bending sideways, their ears in the air, Their eyes are a-asking: "Oh friends are you these?"

"We'r coming,

lonesome and sad; us so long, we feel bad. We'r hungry, neglected and craving your smile, We'r wanting to come and be near you awhile." to see you, we'r

Our masters have

left

And

then, when we open the door you should see, The wagging of tails and the jumping with glee. Tickled to death at the welcome they get, The happiest doggies that one ever met.

THOSE I

think of those kids,

I

KIDS.

bless

them and pray women some day;

For kids who'll be men and be

With

troubles a-plenty, us old folks are knowing, will be kids and learn only by showing.

But kids

You'r telling and

telling, but rarely soaks in, to virtue by passing through sin; They'r gaining their knowledge by making mistakes,

They climb up

They'r reaching perfection through

How

do

That

I

I I

many bad

breaks.

I know it? Well, I'm telling you now, was a kid once, and followed a plow;

hilled the potatoes and hoed out the weeds, spaded the garden and planted the seeds.

carried in wood 'till my back used to ache, got in the jam and got in the cake; Did many a thing that I would not do now, I saved my hide sometimes but sometimes, oh, I I

wow

!

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

IS

ITS

My

REAL ESTATE FOR

wife and

I

have wondered much

What we will do with Jim, And we have 'bout concluded It's

He

JIM.

that

"real estate" for him.

does not

like to

hoe the corn

Or weed the garden patch, But when he hears the dinner gong, He's pulling at the latch.

He never wants to do his part, He's always on the shirk, In fact its anything for Jim But real hard, honest work. And now

that Jim has flatly failed

At everything so far, We'll start him up in "real With classy motor car.

The only

capital he needs,

Is tidy clothes to

Dislike of

And

estate,"

wear,

work with pompousness,

plenty of hot

Where he can make

air.

his ten per cent,

For nothing in return, But just a-roping in the chap, With plenty wealth to burn.

For when a person can't succeed With out committing sin, He'll settle down to "real estate"

And

rake the dollars

So many men

in.

in "real estate,"

Will secretly ensnare Their nearest friend or relative And load him down with care.

237

IS

238

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

So they may gain

their juicy fee travel "easy road," While victims of their cunning talk, Are crushed beneath the load.

And

so nice and neighborly Until the deal is made, And then they'll make you dance for them

They seem Or

forfeit all

you've paid.

They'r always short on making good Their promises profuse But you must do all you agreed

Or everything

you'll lose.

A GRINDSTONE OF THE GODS This earth to me, appears to be, a Grindstone of the

Gods While turning 'round our wits are ground so we may battle odds.

Some mortals in

are

of

metal made, that sharpen well

time

While others seem

of poorer grade*

who

melt or turn

to crime.

LIKES AND DISLIKES Your likes and dislikes are a part of yourself As much or more so than your fingers and toes. And while you can't help being just what you

A

man

are,

with a wart on your nose Your reason should guide you and act as a bar To keep you from doing some things you elect. Just think the thing over before you go far A "like," like a wart, may be a defect.

bow-legged

,

;

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

239

SCARECROW SAL Scarecrow Sal was a patient old dame But the way she was treated was just a shame; She watched in the garden for ever so long, While doing much good she thought of no wrong. After a long and wearisome day Of scaring the birdies and rabbits away; Protecting the garden as well as she could, While on her way home by a brick pile she stood.

Three heroes were living just south of the brick, A-waiting for someone their size she could lick. I know all their names, and could mention them too, In fact I may do so before I get through. Well, anyway, Sal was alone in the dark, So tired and nervous now what was that

A

box

down

hark!

queer noise The hair stood up straight on the heads of three falling

a devilish

boys. of the tent flew Owen and gun, Ralph at his heels and Bill on the run. Bang! went the gun while pointed at Sal A-facing three heroes, what show had the gal?

Out

I

Owen, he swore like a pirate would do it; Ralph lunged at Sally, but Bill beat him to it. Bill grabbed her throat and the splinters just flew Ralph tried to hit her and then they all knew. I

The light seemed to dawn on 'em there They had a thriller and we had a lark

in the

Poor Sally was injured, three heroes felt cheap My, what a racket, no one could sleep.

dark

IS

240

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

DORA MCCARTHY Sad news I'm

resavin,' that touches the quick, They're telling me Dora McCarthy is sick, They're telling she lies there in bed all the while, With a tormintin' pain and nivver a smile.

Imagine But wait

Wid But

horror, pathetic a minit, there's the slave of me coat, I'll the lump in me throat to stay.

I'm sorry of

Now I I

me

jist

wan

thing,

I'll

surprise rain in me eyes; jist

wipe it away, sames wantin'

there,

hev to confiss,

thet ye'r sick and unable to driss: was dramin' of ye, one nite long ago, tho't ye looked sassy an' sed to me, so:

mad at ye now, ye're wantin', I'm riddy to row," An' phwat did I say? As sure as I live, It's a kiss ye are wantin', and thin ye'll fergive. "O'Brien ye scamp, I'm If it's trouble

While ye were some firm, it's stubborn I was, Me rason was bad, yer rason "because;" But why not be friends, as like we was once, I'm not blamin' ye, girl, it's meself was a dunce.

Now Dora McCarthy, cheer up wid a smile, Ye'v somethin' t live for, at least for a while. I'm riddy an' willin,' when ye are the same, To meet an' make up as ye asked in me drame.

STAY MIT

IT.

Annodder Dutchman, vunce, und I Lives on a mountain oop so high.

Ve

talks erbout a road ve

make

So him ve build mitout mistake.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

241

Der nodder Dutchman says to me: "Dot land vas hard, now don't you see, Und ven ve tries dot plow to sink She mit der ground oudt conies I tink! "It should be best

Und

So you Vile

Then

ride der

you

beam,

try and stear der team, vas better ride him strong yust conies behind along."

vil

I

I

I

dot plow, on top did stand,

To make him dig oop deep dot land. Der nodder Dutchman says to me: "Stay mit

How

it,

dot

is

fine

nice to hear dot

"Stay mit

you

see."

Dutchman

say:

this vas

only play." Dot plow along so smooth did went Until ve meets dot axident. it,

But soon ve

Und

then

hits der poulder rock a double-header shock.

Dot plow she breaks himself

Und down

in

two

der mountain ve yust flew.

Those stumps ve bump against our nose; Der brush she tear off all our clothes; Der team tied loose himself und vent, But ve stayed near dot axident. -

Und vile ve stand dere, sitting down, Ve vere too veak to m'ove aroun,' Ve look each nodder in der face Und feel so foolish in dot place. Ve neider of us feel so gay Instead of saying: mit it stay, Der nodder Dutchman change his song: "Mein Gott! You mit it stayed too long."

IS

242

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

MONO

da

MONK

Me find-a da mine, me call Mono da Monk; Me dig-a da gole, in da great-a beeg chunk. Me buy-a da grand-a beeg au-to-mo-beel Me climb-a da grade an me coast down da heel. ;

She make-a dees life so nice an so real, That grand-a that fine-a beeg au-to-mo-beel.

Me

come take-a da ride; an she spoil-a my pride, what you all call-a da plug, Da enga he stutter, he chug-a stop chug Diablo seems in heem no pull-a da load, She stop-a go dead-a out in-a da road. tell-a

my

frens all

We bust-a da tire We crack-a da spark

Me get-a da horse an she pull heem to town, He make-a me feel just like-a beeg clown. Me swear-a da bad, da word he not nice, Me sell-a da car most any da price, Me buy-a da sheep what sail-a da air, An show-a da worl' how queek I get there. Da enga he stop no want-a go well, Da sheep he no stop he go like-a me

We

hit-a

My

eye he mooch black he no

tell.

da groun' like-a car-load-a brick, They pull-a me out an she make-a me sick; She break-a my borne an she bust-a my head, She make-a me live long-a time in da bed.

Me drink-a da Me think-a what

let-a

me

see,

toast and me eat-a da tea. fool all these mortal she bean, She go-a so craze on all kind-a macheen. Me get-a some well an me stand in a chair Me think-a da sheep an me try not to swear.

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

Me sell-a da ding-bust-a thing-a one Me tell-a da man she no need-a to To

243

day, pay,

me no want-a da ride, no get-a laze, me no got-a da pride She not be so long, when me leave-a dees bunk Me walk-a da mine-a call Mono da Monk. take-a da thing,

Me

THE CROAKER (Dedicated to a

man

I

know)

Wherever he may chance to be He croaks to make inharmony

He croaks in business, croaks at home, He needs a boot-jack on his dome. He croaks to hinder and to kill, He always did and always will. His croak starts things to going wrong, As fools will listen to his song; They get en rapport with his pain

And

start to singing his refrain. Until success and something doin' Is turned to rout and utter ruin.

O,

How this croaker loves to croak He's more a nuisance than a joke. He's croaking early, croaking late, Just croaks his spite and croaks his hate He just cant croak enough it seems, He croaks awake and in his dreams. ;

;

He croaks and knows it doesn't pay; He croaks because he feels that way. He croaks the same thing o'er and

o'er,

He'll croak till Time shall be no more He'll never stop his horrid croak Until his blamed old croaker's broke. ;

ADVICE TO GIRLS. Whenever any man, young seems

to take interest great

or old, married or single,

more than ordinary enough to ask you

interest in you; an to accompany him

alone for a walk or ride, to church, theatre or anywhere, do not become flattered but become suspicious; for, in a majority of cases, it will be more for his inIn terest, benefit and pleasure, than for your own. many cases it will be to injure you and cause you untold agony and disgrace that you will not be able to cover up or survive. Never accept such an invitation from a person you would not at the time, "think" yourself possibly willing Nine times out of ten he will be thinking to marry. of the marriage relation with you, while you are thinking of something entirely different, when he asks you to accompany him. DO not become under obligations to, or become familiar or overly friendly with a man who is not free to

marry and one

whom you would

not possibly be will-

ing to marry. of any boy or man who seeks to meet you unknown to your folks, as great harm may come to you when you least expect it. Scorn any flirtation with strangers, as no man or

Beware

alone and

boy of refinement

None but those do

will try to of depraved

with a strange

girl.

and brutal nature

will

flirt

it.

It

makes no

difference

who

the

man

or

boy

is

;

a mil-

son or neighbor's son. Such a man or boy may "like" you, but don't feel proud, rather feel humiliated and ashamed, as this kind of "like" is not pure love, because such men or boys are simply not capable of loving in a pure manner. The kind of affection such men or boys would have for you is the same character as the wolf or fox would lionair's son, a pauper's

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

245

have for chickens. Wolves and foxes "like" chickens, yes, but when the wolves and foxes get through with the chickens there is nothing left but a few bones and blood stained feathers. When such men and boys get through with you there will be nothing left but disYou will abhor yourself, and, under the circumgrace. stances how could you reasonably expect anyone else to look at you in any other light? Do not look on the folks who warn you, as "old fools," saying: "nobody is going to eat me, I guess I can look out for myself." No, girls do not do this. This would be a mistake. There is a right road to travel I am trying to life and a wrong road. point out the right road. One leads to happiness and the other to disgrace and misery. You will come in contact with more men and boys on earth who will try to fead you on the wrong road, than those who will point out to you the right road. Some men and boys will show you the wrong road sim-

through earthly

ply because it is to their interest to do so. It is human nature to do so, the brutal part of human nature the kind of human nature that is on a par with vicious lowanimals that "enjqy life" by ensnaring er animals; and crushing between their merciless jaws, the lives of other animals, lapping the blood of their vistims with human nature that will then start 'ansatisfaction; other flirtation with another silly, strange girl. This kind of human nature, this kind of men, must necessarily work among strangers; those who do not know their real character. Everytime a stranger, or anyone else for that matter, starts a flirtation with you, just think of Bluebeard Gillam. Think of the many girls and women he "married" and then murdered; remembering that not all of the Bluebeards get caught and that not all of them are dead. This may help to hold you somewhat steady. Always remember that the greater the tempter, the ;

greater the

charm, fascination and

apparent agreeable-

246

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE? Think

ness about him. attracts the

moth

of the pretty bright light that

to its destruction.

The moth

says:

"Oh, how lovely it is the very thing I have longed and prayed for; it is so pleasant; how could it harm me?" ;

And

then the moth flies straight to destruction. Remember, girls, that rogues are always more polished, more polite and more charming than many honest, well meaning people. They seem to be that 1

which they are not. "All girls between the ages of 14 to 20 are naturaland all that ly, spontaneously and inevitably in love is then wanting is a suitable and worthy object to lavish it on. If she finds such, well and good but whether she does or not she must and will pour it out, healthy vr otherwise, on a cat, a dog, a man or a orute, nor can she help it; it is the birth of affection, love and romance. She thinks no wrong and fears no harm. Gentle, trustful, noble girl," though willful as well at ;

;

times.

Listen girls: since women have been given the vote, a big responsibility rests on your shoulders. There is a big world war just ahead of us. It will be a war of ideas fought with words, not guns. Intelligent, unselfish men will be trying to make this earth a better place for you to live in, while selfish, brutal men will be trying to keep our earth just as it is they now have you, as well as others, at a great disadvantage. You will have the casting vote you may have the responsibility of deciding questions that will sway the world. In your hands rests the future progress and future happiness of the human race. You will be called upon to decide how much sorrow, misery and poverty shall be allowed to exist in the future. You will decide how ;

;

glad, joyous and happy, healthy children, and people, earth shall have, and how many pinched, hungry, diseased and criminal faces our earth shall produce. You will have the deciding vote, be careful what you do.

many

grown

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

IS

247

Think; read and think, study and think. Try and in all things. discover truth Try and discover the truth about religion, about economics, about everyday affairs. Listen to what your mother and father and Listen to what the preacher others say about religion. and the Sunday school teacher say about religion and other things, but do not "believe" what anybody says unless it satisfies your reason. Take your Bible and read it; study it. Commence at the beginning and read Do not let your Sunday school teacher it intelligently. pick out the dainty morsels for you. Read and think

you do at public school. not get the idea that I am advising you to disobey your parents. I am not. I am advising you to think properly so you can vote properly. And the proper way for you to vote is to vote the way your reason, not your prejudice, tells you to vote. And your reason cannot act unless you study and think on the quesfor yourself, like

Do

tions

by

on to decide. Learn to depend on intelligence and not be influenced or herded

you are

your own

called

others.

One

of the big questions for any girl to decide is the It is really the biggest marriage question. question And too many times the question is settled of her life.

much

the following: girl are out walking, out riding, sitting in the park or parlor and he says: "Be mine?" She says: "Uh-huh ;" they walk across the street, procure a license, see a Justice of the Peace, spend ten dollars and ten minutes, and are joined until "death do us part." Easy isn't it? I say it is too easy. It rrtust be made harder for the protection of the individuals as well as for the protection of society in general. too

A

like

boy and

They have taken the most important step that two humans possibly can take in this life without anyone else interfering other than to grin and make fun of them. The girl has taken great risks that no girl should take, without consuming much time in studying every possi-

248

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

bility

connected with the matter.

ment

that which

it

may

take a

life

She can do in a motime to undo, correct

or wipe away. She runs the risk of contracting a loathsome disease second only to leprosy. Sh e runs the risk of getting a brutal, jealous, selfish, neglectful husband in place of

an attentive, considerate, generous and manly lover she thinks she

is getting. The boy takes some risks, yes, but nothing as compared to the risk the girl takes. The next day, the next week, the next month or year, one or the other, or both of them, may wake up and realize that they are chained to an uncongenial, unfriendly, unfaithful or brutal or deceitful mate, and cannot become unchained unless one of them dies or one or the other becomes a criminal in the eyes of the law, and all their troubles and private affairs are exposed to public view while being aired in court, while the lawyers get a good share, if not all of their savings.

Now

all wrong. There is a better way. not be able to do away with all the troubles of earth, we certainly can lessen them greatly by thinking, telling our thoughts to others and reasoning together. When we start in to do some reforming we are usually nine-tenths wrong, but if we keep at it prayerfully and intelligently w e will see clearly in time and be of service to the world. This is why I would like to see a new church established. A church where all these worldly questions can be talked over in a religious manner. Where views can be exchanged and the truth can be uncovered and put to work aiding justice in all human affairs. Religion must reform the world; women must help reform "(religion. But you girls must start the ball

this

While we

is

will

You must

get in the habit of thinking straight questions. The church is the proper place to discuss things worth while. I do not refer to Catholic or Protestant churches or to any other church where a man-made god is worshipped. I refer to a rolling.

and deep on

all

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

249

People's church, built on broader lines; a church that is

to

come when

civilization is

ready for

it.

A

church

recognize the needs of human nature and help to supply those needs. A church that, among many other things, will recognize the absolute necesthat will

sity of courting and will properly encourage and supervise it, instead of driving it to public dance halls, back lanes and dark alleys. Yes, a church that would allow the proper kind of dancing as well as other harmless, worldly entertainments, inside of said church. church for humans, not a hypocritical "house of god" church. God is too big to go to church or live in churches. Men, women and children need churches to

A

teach

them how

to live

and act towards each

other.

great mistake for us to think that we honor and serve our Creator by kneeling and mumbling; by setting aside a special day as more sacred than any other day, or by observing any set form of worship. True prayer, a constant desire for that which the worthy deserve, is laudable and should be encouraged. But It is a

getting down on one knees and praying when we should be out at Work, is weak, crude and heathenish. Our present religious system is full of inconsistencies that men have put there and women keep there. Women must learn to reason and reject everything their reason does not approve of. Until this happens, we will not have a warless world. While our men and boys fought fine in the late war,

our women and girls can do grander and better: they can think and vote for their country. The more real thinking we have for our country the less fighting we will need.

Beware of partizanship and prejudice in everything. Beware of cliques, clans, political parties and religious demoninations. They divide and enslave the people while their political, financial and religious masters rob them.

Do

not "belong" (body and soul) to any political par-

250

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

Do not let any individual ty or religious organization. or set of individuals place a collar around your neck with a chain attached to it.

Do not get stampeded when some shallow brained person accuses you of being disloyal to your church, your Be loyal to your political party, your lodge or club. Creator, humanity, truth, justice and reason first. Do not desire, expect or accept something for nothing. Give an equivalent for all you recieve. If you are not able to give it to those from whom you recieve, then give to others in need of what you can give. Loyalty is sometimes a crime. One cannot be loyal to a dead, superstitious religion without being: a traitor to humanity. A religion teaching that salvation rests on "belief", teaches error. "Belief," like "taste or "smell'" is something over which we have no control. If a fact, we believe it and accept it as a fact. If garbage tasted good to us an smelled good to us we would all eat garbage. Things that do not taste and smell good to us we usually stear clear of. Statements that do not sound reasonable to us, we cannot accept as truth. Therefore it is as unjust for a Christian god, or any other god for that matter to tell us to "Believe or be damned," as it would be for such a god to tell us to eat garbage or "be damned." "Vicarious atonement" is simply re"Something for nothing" is moral ligious garbage. garbage. They go together; they are twins; they are the essence of Christianity, and we must get rid of these ideas even at the risk of being "damned" by the man-made Christian god that exists only in religiously uneducated, unthinking minds of millions of honest, well meaing people whose religious mentality was placed in a mental dungeon in infancy, where the Sun of Truth and Reason never shines where tne thundercloud of "Believe or be damned'" shuts out the genial light of liberty, and forbids us the right to choose that which seems sane, reasonable or good to us. ;

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

251

Christianity itself must reform or "be damned." Intelligence demands that Christianity drop its ancient

through blood and crime and reasonable' helpful and humanitarian, teaching salvation through kind acts ,noble deeds and knowledge or get out of the way with its: Believe Vicarious atonement or be damned>- foolishviciousness

become

salvation

civilized,

refined,

ness.

We

are not responsible for our likes or dislikes, DUT loves or our hates. Most people like ice cream. Now wouldn't it be just awful for especially girls. some man-made god to come along and say: "Dislike ice cream or be damned!"

The girls might honestly "try" to dislike ice cream but they just could not do it; they would crave ice cream all the more. They might bow their heads and mumble that they just hated ice cream because their man-made god commanded it, but they would still like ice cream in spite of their hypocracy. They could not possibly dislike ice cream unless they disliked it. On the other hand, if their man-made god told them to love rotten apples or "be damned" they would surely be damned' for they could not possibly love rotten apples, because they are not built that way, and if they bowed their heads and said they loved rotten apples they would be fibbing. The same reasoning holds good with atonement"

let

George or Jesus suffer

this "Vicarious for sins

my

religious rotten apples. Millions of people are so constituted that reason and justice to them, is the same as mental ice cream, and they love it as dearly as most girls love real ice cream. They see no justice or reason in "Vicarious atonement" (an innocent person suffering for the crimes of the

and will shun it- therefore the Christian god "Depart ye into everlasting hell-fire." How sweet and considerate! What a lovely thing- Christianity is as it comes from the lips of ancient priests,

guilty)

says:

252

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

brought down through the ages to us by the Bible and echoing through our modern churches. Standing alone, each individual and each nation is a weakling. We are all interdependent dependent on each other. We are all dependent on an unseen Power and Intelligence on Spirit, on God. The strongest individual or nation should not think for an instant that mortals can do without this Spiritual Force, which, in the absence of a better name, we call God or Creator, knowing as little of what we are talking about as the minnow knows about the great ocean in which it lives, moves and enjoys life. None of us, nations or individuals, should make the mistake of forgetting our Creator when prosperity is with us. We should remember that there will come times of trouble. We should try and make ourselves worthy of help, when needed, from the unseen, little known Power above and around us, when such times of trouble come; when we need help greater than mortal man can In times of our greatest strength and prosperity give. we should remember our weakness and dependence on the Intelligent Power that brought us into consciousness on earth and will take us away again when our time comes. Just as the ocean is too vast for the minnow to comprehend, God is a million times harder for us to understand. We can only behold His works wonder, admire and feel grateful for blessings showered upon us by showering blessnigs upon those below us. We should forget all man-made gods, saviours and idols, but remember our Creator who brought us to earth's school and who will take us, Heathen and Christian alike, away when we graduate. We should not think of God as a "Christian God." God could not and would not be "Christian" any more than He could or would be Mohammedan or Buddhist. As if the Creator* Ruler and Sustainer of all, could or would allow a handful of human microbes on one of his most insignificant little stars, to name Him and then call themselves his "chosen ;

;

;

people." It is

blasphemy

of the

worst sort for any mortal or

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

253

group of mortals to try and stand on their mental tipand attach any kind of a label to the Creator of animals, vegeeverything. The Creator of all men, tables, minerals and innumerable things that we know nothing of, is not "Christian." When a Christian speaks of a "Christian God," He speaks of a man-made god. The Christian god is a mental image of the unknown and unknowable Creator. The Mohammedan and Buddhist gods are man-made also. The Creator who made Christians, Chinese, Japanese etc., is not "Christian," "Mohammedan" or "Buddhist." These names are to narrow to apply to Him. Had He been "Christian" He never would have made a "Heathen." Had He been "Christian," He never would have made a "Buddhist" toes

or

"Mohammedan." Our Creator has made

far

more so

called

Heathens

than Christians, If He had wanted more Christians than Heathens, He has had plenty of time in which to make them. Up to the preset time we have a right to suppose that God likes Heathens the best because He made more of them.

Any man or woman who pretends to know more about our Creator, than the average intelligent person, only pretends, and usuaally uses such pretentions to gain worldly influence- pleasure and power over his fellow creatures social preferment and money. Beware of such men and women. They teach provincialism, partselfishness, denominationalism, clanishness, isanship, ;

bigotry, superstition, ancient error and ignorance. They divide the people into hostile camps. The world needs a broader creed, a grander religious view and thought; a higher religious ideal that teaches that all men are God's children whether they realize it or not and must, in time treat each other as such. Each granting to others the privilege of going or coming to God in a manner suitable to themselves and God only. In other words, matters between God and the individual should be left to God and the individual. Others should not interfere. Others should help the

254

IS

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

individual in worldly affairs and let the individual sethis Godly affairs himself.

tle

If religion will spread this thought, reach the heart of the world and change

it

will in time

it

from hate to

from war

to peace, from greed to generosity. Until the heart of the world is reached and changed it is silly to look for wars to end. Nothing but religion can change the heart of the world. Girls, here is your opportunity and duty. Break loose from ancient erlove,

roneous religious thought and bring heaven to earth. can do it and will do it, helped by the better class of men.

You

CONCLUSION Realizing that we all should give as much to life as we get out of it, that the greatest need of humanity is less selfishness and more service, and that the greatest quality a person can possess is kindness, it is my desire to aid in planning and establishing a new movement to better religious and economic conditions; to aid in establishing a nearer approach to truth and justice in these matters, going as far in this direction as the peoples' present evolution will allow. It is my desire to be given wisdom and power to help people to help themselves; to plant correct ideas, both religious and economic, in the garden of the mind where they may grow and produce fruit after their kind. I realize that I, alone, am liable to do more harm than good, as my vision is so limited and my personal knowledge so small that I, of myself, without the aid of the (to mortals) unseen Intelligence, I despair of ever accomplishing anything wotrh while, as the forces of hypocracy in religion and greed in economics are so thoroughly organized and intrenched behind age old laws and customs that they cannot be successfully opposed by any singele individual unaided by a power higher

than earthly man.

me

every day a world of trouble that it pains me to behold it, and it lessens my own happiness on earth. I admit that I am selfish in the matter. I wish to help others so their groans will not disturb me. I wish to banish sorrow and pain, or as much of it as possible, because I hate it and do not think it necessary. And because relieving the heavy burdens of others is the only way I can I

I

see before

wish to help

make my own

lessen- as

life

happier.

do not care to be divine. I had rather be the first coming of myself than to be the second coming of anybody. I do not love all man-kind. I do not love the hateful, ignorant, superstitious people who are drunken with I

CHRISTIANITY A FAILURE?

IS

256

greed

and

self

indulgence;

some

calling

themselves

Christians while calling- others heathens. But I pity them and must necessarily do all I can to aid them to climb higher in order to climb higher myself, as I am a part of them. I

am aware

when he

that the world usually spits on a reformer

him, then throws flowers on his grave. I can get along very nicely without either spit or flowers from others. But would be glad to join with intelligent, well meaning men and women to try and make earthly conditions better than they are at present. If my efforts are worthy of approval they will meet with success. If not, they will fail and I will be content to have done my full duty as I saw it. is

living, kills

I

Though

My

my

my

course I will pursue, conscience judges right and true. feelings may be hurt, or body bruised, by

Straight ahead,

That which

WILL

my

the unthinking crowd, thought, my will, my soul shall soar, cannot be

bowed. Sorrow, pain, and even death, to me are naught; All the powers of evil cannot curb my thought. My conscience is the Word of God to me;

While science shall my true religion be. For my interpretation of God's Plan Is: strive to elevate myself, and others, all

I can. I look, myself to guide, priest to Shall reason be, with justice by its side, course I will pursue; Straight ahead, Out of a grafting, superstitious world, Til help to build

The

whom

my

a new.

YC 15839

40154.

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA LIBRARY